The Landlord of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Dr. Michael (Michoel) Wilensky address appeared in the Rebbe�s university registration records in Berlin.

Shaul Shimon Deutsch's writes on page 85 of the 2nd volume of the "Larger than life: The life and times of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson":

Dr. Michael (Michoel) Wilensky was the son of one of the most famous Chabad Chasidim. His father, Rabbi Chaim Ber Wilensky of Kremenchug, was considered one of the greatest minds in the area of Chasidic thought. He was known as one of the "Berelach" of Kremenchug. This was a phrase coined for a few great Chasidic scholars who were all named Ber who all lived in Kremenchug. The fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe RaShaB said of Chaim Ber Wilensky that "he was capable of giving twenty-one explanations on the mystical concept of Ein Sof.

Chaim Ber had a son named Michoel. In his youth, Michoel studied at a Chabad yeshiva. However, he wanted a secular education and entered the university. He received his doctorate from the University of Berne in 1912 and went on to specialize in mathematics at the University of Kazan, Russia. After the 1917 Revolution, he settled in Odessa. There, his interest in Jewish studies was aroused by Chaim Nachman Bialik, and he worked on the staff of Tarbut until 1920.

Staff of Dvir Publishing in Odessa, MW #18, Chaim Nahum Bialik #7

In 1921, Michoel managed to leave Communist Russia for Berlin, along with a group of Jewish intellectuals headed by Chaim Nachman Bialik. In Berlin, he worked for Bialik at the Dvir Publishing Company.

A group of Russian Jews in Berlin after they left with Bialik, MW#29, Chaim Nahum Bialik #24

While in Berlin, he edited Abraham Ibin Ezra's grammatical works, Safah Berurah and Moznayim. He contributed articles to historical journals and to the German Jewish Encyclopedia and worked with the Verein zur Gruendung einer Akademie fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums. His principal accomplishment in Berlin was the publication, in 1929, of Jonah ibn Gnach's Sefer Ha- Rikimah. (The Sefer Rikimah was published by Wilensky in Berlin. Volume I was published in 1929 and Volume II in 1931. It was republished after Wilensky's death. With the help and advice of the Rebbe, Dr. Shimon Bernstein edited and republished the book in Jerusalem, in 1964. The title page of Sefer Ha-Rikimah lists Dr. Wilensky's address as the same one as provided by the Rebbe on his registration records at the University.)

Did the Rebbe have a good relationship with his landlord? The answer is most definitely yes. Their friendship lasted until the end of Michael Wilensky's life in 1955. Dr. Wilensky came to America in 1935 and was Manuscript Librarian at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, the Reform rabbinical seminary. (See "The Refugee Scholars Project of the Hebrew Union College" by Michael Meyer. In Gary J. Robuck's article, "The Rescue of The European Scholar: The Hebrew Union College (1934-42)", he states: "In 1935, after careful consideration and inquiry, another call was issued. Dr. Michael Wilensky, a native of Russia living in Lithuania, was called to Cincinnati to catalog the manuscripts in the library. The terms of the call indicate that he should be hired for only one year at a salary of $2000.00. Presumably, Wilensky would return to Lithuania after the completion of his work."

However, in 1937, Wilensky was well ensconced in the college library and would stay there until his retirement. Separated from his wife and very alone culturally at the college, Wilensky quickly fell ill and proved quite some burdensome for Dr. Morgenstern. Dr. Wilensky, like many refugee scholars who came to this country, was so uncomfortable that Morgenstern was sufficiently aroused to compose a letter to Dr. Ismar Elbogen, head of the Hochshule Fur Die Wissenschaft Des Judentums, who had recommended Wilensky originally.

[Dr. Morgenstern wrote]: �We brought him here primarily not because we were so eager to have our manuscripts catalogued at just this particular time when our financial situation is anything but good, but because we felt obliged to do something for those Jewish scholars in distress. He has misunderstood his position here completely and it seems impossible to make him appreciative.�

According to Michael Meyer's article, Mrs. Wilensky wrote an emotional letter to Morgenstern claiming that, not only was there no work for her husband in Lithuania, but that leaving America could lead to a fatal stroke. The college then paid for a ticket for her to join her husband in America. He remained at his cataloging task until his retirement in 1943. He compiled a catalog of all the manuscripts in the institution's library. In his will, he left his private library of books and manuscripts to the Rebbe. (Told to the author [SSD] by Rabbi Aron Chitrik. Also mentioned in his letter to the editor published in the Algemeiner journal, Sept. 24,1994, p. B2.)

Not only did Wilensky will his library to the Rebbe; in his life-time, he gave the Rebbe four original handwritten books of Chasidus. Three of them were handwritten manuscripts of the Tzemach Tzedek (the third Lubavitcher Rebbe). In a letter the Rebbe sent to Wilensky he writes (Igrois Kodesh by the Rebbe. Vol. 9, pp.254-55. 11A. Ibid.): Knowing you from back then [a reference to Berlin], I would like to know how you are doing and if there is any way I can be of assistance to you. In that same letter the Rebbe also writes: Thank you for notifying me about the four bichlach [handwritten books of Chasidus - Translator's note], of which three are from the Tzemach Tzedek. I would like to know if their contents have already been printed or not. If there are any costs involved, I would be glad to pay them.

Wilensky, who was ill at the time, could not visit the Rebbe. However, the Rebbe sent Rabbi Yosef Goldstein to visit Wilensky and pick up the Chasidic manuscripts. Wilensky gave the Rebbe not only the books, but also a copy of a letter that he had received from the Previous Rebbe. The Rebbe also recalled his memories of Dr. Wilensky on various occasions. In one letter, the Rebbe wrote to Dr. Shimon Bernstein (who was involved in reprinting Wilensky's notes and corrections to Sefer Rikimah) about his memories of Dr. Wilensky in Berlin: I knew the deceased o.b.m. [a reference to Dr. Wilensky]. He was very talented and very meticulous. I was in Berlin when Dr. Wilensky was working on his book. I saw him totally engrossed, spending days and nights on his book. In a fascinating letter which I discovered in the Genazim archives (Hebrew Poets Society) in Israel, written by the Rebbe to Mrs. Wilensky, the Rebbe writes with high praise of the late Dr. Wilensky.

When the Rebbe was informed of Dr. Wilensky death, he sent R. Yisroel Jacobson to Cincinnati to represent him at the Funeral. Dr. Samuel Atlas a colleague of Wilensky in HUC wrote a very interesting letter to R. Y.Y. Weinberg describing the events surrounding Wilensky death and funeral.

end of SSD quote.

1938 Hebrew Union College copied the 1933 effort by New School University in establishing a School for European scholars. HUC initiated a rescue effort of 10 prominent scholars to form "The Jewish School in Exile":

(From left) Samuel Atlas, taught Talmud at the Institute of Jewish Studies at Warsaw; Abrahan Joshua Heschel, of the Juedisches Lehrhaus at Frankfort-am-Main and the Institute of Jewish Studies at Warsaw; Michael Wilensky; Eugen Taeubler, Professor of History at Heidelberg; Julius Lewy, Professor of Semitic Languages and Ancient Oriental History at Giessen and Director of its Oriental Seminary, Curator of the Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities at the University of Jena and editor of the publications of the Vorderasiatisch-Aegyptische Gesellschaft of Berlin; Julian Morgenstern, HUC President; Alexander Guttmann, taught Talmud and Mishnah at the Hochschule fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums at Berlin; Isaiah Sonne (hidden), taught at the Rabbinical College in Florence and later was Director of the Rabbinical College on the Island of Rhodes; Eric Werner, Instructor in Jewish Music and Liturgy at the Theological Seminary of Breslau; Franz Landsberger, Associate Professor of History of Art at Breslau; and Franz Rosenthal, a prize-winning Semiticist.