By COLlive reporter
A historic discovery was recently made in Lyubavichi, the rural village in the Rudnyansky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, most commonly known as Lubavitch.
The foundation of a shul was uncovered alongside the Ohel resting place of the 3rd and 4th Rebbes of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, COLlive.com has learned.
This historic shul has been used by Chassidim coming to daven at the kevorim of the Tzemach Tzedek, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1789–1866), and his successor the Rebbe Maharash, Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn (1834–1882), of blessed memory.
“From what we know, this shul was built from after the times of the Tzemach Tzedek and was in use up until the times of the Rebbe Rayatz,” says R’ Gavriel Gordon, the Shliach who oversees operations in the Lubavitch town.
“This shul was in use even as the chassidim left Lubavitch,” he told COLlive.com. “We know that in 1922, the Rebbe Rayatz came here and said the last Maamar in Russia.”
The cemetery has been established in the early 19th century. There are about 200 gravestones at the cemetery but it is only a small fraction of their pre-war number, according to Jewish Heritage Europe.
Some of those graves are of the Rebbes, Rebbetzins Sterna, Shaina and Mushka, as well as the Tzemach Tzedak’s son Rabbi Baruch Shalom Schneersohn, the Rebbe Maharash’s son Avraham Sender, who passed at the age of 9, and many great chassidim.
A grave that was recently found was of Rabbi Yissachar Ber Kobilniker, a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov who served as the maggid of Lubavitch, where he taught a 12-year-old Schneur Zalman, who became the founder and first Rebbe of the Chabad.
Recent preservation work at the cemetery is being supported by philanthropist Yossi Popack whose grandfather studied at Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim, the first of many branches of Chabad yeshivas.
Gordon, who splits his time between Russia and Israel, called the discovery “exciting and historic,” adding that “we know from this shul that the kohanim would walk into the Ohel through this shul.”
“We learned that the building had red bricks like at 770 Eastern Parkway, the floor and roof were made of wood – the same at the Ohel there and you can see the burn marks that tore it down,” he said.
Over the years, he said, the Rebbe and the Rebbe Rayatz have inquired about the shul but searching for it was not possible because of the oppressive restrictions of Soviet authorities.
“The plan is to bring here rabbis and experts to trace the shul and then rebuilt it on the same foundation,” says Gordon, who has been involved in doing the same to the Rebbe Rashab’s house and Yeshiva in the Russian city of Rostov. “We can use all the help we can get.”
For more info, visit https://fjc-fsu.org/lubavitch/
Can’t believe it took so long to finally find its
is this something to be done? for all we know there can be yidden buried there… why dig it up??
So cool it’s still there! Why was it plowed over?
it was destroid by the nazis yms along with the rest of the mekomos hakdoshim
any information on when and why it was destroyed?