Tikvah
Subscribe
Editor's Pick

June 21, 2023

What Chaim Grade Told Menachem Mendel Schneerson

The rebbe, the president, and the poet.

The Yiddish poet and novelist Chaim Grade is best known for his literary depictions of religious life in prewar Eastern Europe—and of his own disillusionment from that particular life. Much of his work is centered around the great yeshivas of Vilna and its environs, heirs of the anti-ḥasidic countermovement of the late 18th century. Yet in the 1960s, Grade began a correspondence with the rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch Ḥasidim, facilitated by Israel’s then-president Zalman Shazar and encouraged by Grade’s wife, who generally wanted little to do with Jewish affairs. Eli Rubin tells the story, and presents a translation of some of the correspondence:

Subscribe to Continue Reading

Get the best Jewish ideas and conversations. Subscribe to Tikvah Ideas All Access for $12/month

Login or Subscribe
Save