Photo of Benefactor of Rebbe’s Father Found in KGB File

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Levi Haskelevich, a Chabad Shliach in Philadelphia, is working on a book about his maternal grandfather Reb Motel Lipshitz, a legendary shochet in Soviet Russia who was imprisoned by the KGB in 1939, a day after he became a chosson.

In KGB’s 900-page dossier about him, there were references to others who were arrested for the same crime of “counterrevolutionary activity” – spreading and strengthening Yiddishkeit.

Among those mentioned was Rabbi Aryeh Leib Kaplan HY”D, the last unofficial Rabbi of Kiev and the grandfather of ab extensive Chabad family of Shluchim, mechanchim and askonim. It also had a photo of him that is now seen for the very first time.

Rabbi Kaplan, a renowned gaon and yorei shamayim, learned at the Slabodke yeshiva and was a favorite talmid of Reb Baruch Ber Leibovitch OBM. He was murdered by the Soviets on Yom Kippur 1943.

Family members told COLlive.com that the only photo of him that survived the exodus from the Soviet Union was from an enlarged group photo taken at the last conference of Russian rabbonim in 1927 (where he was seated next to the Rebbe‘s uncle Rav Sholom S. Schneerson). He was in his early thirties at the time.

The newly discovered photo is the first of him from his prison years, the family said.

In 1939, Rabbi Kaplan was arrested, imprisoned and eventually exiled to the Khazakstani village of Yani-Kurgan, as punishment for his religious activity in Kiev. He and other prisoners were transported by a freight train to Khazakstan. To his surprise, he met on the train the gaon and chossid Harav Levi Yitzchok Schneerson, the Yakesrinislover rav and father of the Rebbe. He was being exiled to Chilli, a tiny dusty village, home to a few hundred Muslim peasants.

Rabbi Kaplan, who had met Reb Levi Yitzchok a number of times previously, had always appreciated his exalted stature. During the few-day journey, he got to know Reb Levi Yitzchok better and realized he was a completely spiritual Jew who would have a very difficult time settling and surviving the harsh life in Chilli and determined to somehow help him adjust.

Yani-Kurgan was a four-hour train ride from Chilli and Rabbi Kaplan made weekly illegal trips to Chilli to see how could help Reb Levi Yitzchok. He purchased a few vegetables and prepared something to eat, found a few pieces of old, discarded furniture.

“He helped Reb Levi Yitzchok survive his first months in exile until Rebbetzin Chana arrived,” the Kaplan family said.

Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson would mention this often to Rabbi Kaplan’s son, Rabbi Moshe Kaplan. For many years, the Rebbe would discretely tell R’ Moshe to say L’chaim at the farbrengens held in honor of Chof Av, the yartzeit of Rab Levi Yitzchok.

Interestingly, the photo shows a haggard middle-aged man wearing a yarmulka and a full beard, something very seldom seen in a KGB prison photo, the family noted.

“This new discovery has raised hopes that his own KGB file may be found as well,” they said.