Mendel Zalmanovich Schneerson

Forgotten Alter Rebbe's Einiklach

Academic transcript found in the archive of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Affidavit (certificate):

Student of the 8th grade in the private Jewish gymnasium named A. C. Ratner in the town of Gomel, Mogilev district.

• Mendel Zalmanovich Schneerson

• "Hereditary Honorary Citizen" ("потомственный почетный гражданин")

• Religion — Jewish

• Born on 13 December 1892 [one year younger than Boris Mendelevich Schneerson]

  In 1909, he was admitted after the exam to the 6th grade of Ratner Jewish boy’s gymnasium.¹ Until he finished his studies, he was on his best behavior.

• In 1912, after exams supervised by Vilno district, he was given the following grades:

• Russian language: 3 (5 excellent, 4 good, 3 satisfactory)

• Philosophy: 5 [but of course, honorable drey kop]

• Latin: 4

• Arithmetic: 3

• Algebra: 4

• Geometry: 5

• Trigonometry: 4

• Mathematical Geography: 4 [navigation?]

• Physics: 4

• History: 5

• Geography and nature: 3 [another geography]

• Law: 5 [but of course]

• German: 3

• French: 3

This certificate is given to Mendel Schneerson, etc.

Vilna, June 30, 1912 [Mendel was 19-20 when he graduated]

Two stamps and two signatures.

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Interesting that sometimes bureaucracy lags the realities on the ground, Gomel that borders Russia and Ukraine on the South East of Belarus, still very much a Vilno educational district of the Russian Empire. Belarus, still a litvak domain.

As I wrote, it appears that Gomel/Homel had three “Schneerson clans”, Menuhin (his mother really), Repker Rov family, and Fishel’s family. Have no idea if this Mendel Schneerson relates to any of the clans, or if it is a Schneerson from a different town. But the “Hereditary Honorary Citizen” (“потомственный почетный гражданин”) was evidently a real thing for the einiklach of Tzemach Tzedek.

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Update No. 1:

This Mendel is, in fact, a brother of Fishel and Issac. He died “in his youth”, but not before getting some doctoral degree, apparently. Chabadpedia:

שניאור זלמן שניאורסון (נין אדמו"ר הצמח צדק)

R. Schneur Zalman, Mendel’s father

Children:

• פרופסור פישל שניאורסון.

• ר' יצחק שניאורסון.

• ר' ד"ר מענדל שניאורסון (נפטר בצעירותו).

• מרת אסתר קבקוב, אשת ר' שלמה קבקוב.

• מרת ד"ר פייגא שניאורסון.

Update No. 2:

After giving this some, though. This was probably a pre-printed standard form and not indicative of all subjects taught in a given gymnasium. Otherwise, why would they have Закон Божий there? Nevertheless, there still might be an expectation that religious studies one does at home. I stand by the following assessment of the role of Tzemach Tzedek.

Update No. 3:

Humboldt U and Schneersons.

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Tzemach Tzedek’s Grave Disservice to the Russian Jewry

Note, Mendel (everyone) studied at least four languages — Russian, Latin, French, and German. Greek is also listed, but Mendel didn’t take Greek. Educated people knew French and German, English wasn’t even on the radar then (only 100 years ago).

If this was a nominally Jewish gymnasium in a Jewish town, but no direct evidence of Jewish subjects. We can thank for this, Tzemach Tzedek and his mad fight with the maskilim (we spoke about this on the Russian podcast).

Tzemach Tzedek did more damage towards the cause of Jewish education in Russia than anyone else in the world. And he paid for this with the virtually complete assimilation of his grandchildren. In his fight with maskilim Tzemach Tzedek opposed the Jewish taxes flowing back to the Jewish community and creating Jewish schools. He opposed schools influenced by maskilim and perhaps even using German Jewish textbooks in the “modern” curriculum. He opposed the compromised purity of the traditional “education” of the beis medrash. As a result of the Lubavitcher aggressive lobbying, the idea of Jewish day school was doomed. Instead, you got these gymnasia that followed the national standard. It was an excellent education without a trace of Jewish subjects, just like Tzemach Tzedek wanted. It also excluded the Jewish middle-class and Jewish poor from ever receiving any kind of Jewish education, or any advanced education really. And left private gymnasia for the rich kids, effectively making Tzemach Tzedek’s upper-class, moneyed grandchildren exposed. Guaranteed assimilation of that family. Guaranteed tensions for the talented, spiritually inclined (and rich) kids like Zalman Scheerson, a Talmud Torah, Yeshive or nothing. And it was nothing for the generations of Russian Jews.

So Schneur’s son, take that Chabad House and shove it back to your farkakter village. You did a monumental disservice to the Russian Jewry when it counted most. In your quest for purity, you did irreparable harm to the Russian Jewry and your family. You did damage to my family and the families of millions of Russian Jews.

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Zalman in comments: “Places like Riga in Latvia, which followed the Hirschian line, had a fine multidimensional Orthodox community. Of course, the Rayatz ranted and raved against their religious position after 1927 and then left to Warsaw.”

One day, I will completely drown in my grievances. Occasionally, it feels near. Now gasping for air. Hands flailing. And the birds, they still be singing like outside my window now. As the sun breaks into the summer early morning. Another sad day about to begin.

Ratner gymnasium

The gymnasium building with retail establishments on the ground floor was designed by the most famous Gomel architect, Stanislav Shabunevsky. At the beginning of 1909, he became a partner of Samuil and Yosel Shanovich in the ownership of this house. Its creator also lived in it for some time.

The former gymnasium suffered from German air strikes. During the restoration work, the building was dismantled. In the early 1950s, architect Valentin Zhdanovich built two symmetrical semicircular residential buildings in the style of Soviet classicism. The house with the address Sovetskaya St., 36, was built on the site of the former Ratner gymnasium.

Is Ratner the gymnasium Zalman Schneerson “never went to”? Or did he really, the truth now…

1. In 1897, there were 20,385 Jews living in Homel, which constituted 56.4% of the total population. Most earned their living as government suppliers and traders in forest products. However, the community also struggled with poverty. The so-called Rov (“Trench”) was a valley inhabited by poor, large Jewish families. The place was depicted by Yosef Haim Brenner in his work entitled Me-ʻemek ʻakhor: tsiyurim u-reshimot [Out of a Gloomy Valley]. Warsaw. 1900. The above-mentioned census of 1897 lists 26 synagogues, 25 prayer houses, a primary Jewish school (200 pupils), the Ratner Jewish male lower secondary school (with as many as 27 teachers and 255 students), a junior high school for girls (90 students), a Jewish high school (193 students), the four-class school for girls run by Syrkina (403 pupils), a Talmud-Torah school run by Hołomsztok (152 pupils), and as many as 45 cheders with the total of 662 students.