100 Rebbe’s Letters Found in Home

By COLlive reporter

When Moshe Tuvia Fischer passed away this past month in Jerusalem, his family discovered over 100 letters he has received from the Rebbe.

What made the discovery even more unique was the fact that the 90-year-old Jew, an adherent of religious Zionism, wasn’t a regular in Chabad circles.

“My father was a Chabadnik from the inside and a National Religious from the outside,” his children told the Kfar Chabad Magazine. “The Rebbe wanted him to stay this way – as he is, where he is.”

These letters show how the Rebbe guided Fischer in every important crossroad in his life, from accepting a temporary job in Holland to moving back to Israel and raising a family.

The first letter is dated winter 5720 when Fischer reported to the Rebbe about “my new friends,” R’ Nachum Rabinovitch and other Chabad Chassidim living in Jerusalem.

Fischer discovered Chabad when he studied in the first Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Kfar Haroeh. The Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Moshe-Zvi Neria would often quote Chabad teachings.

He continued to study in the Chevron Yeshiva, David Yellin College and Lifshitz College leading him to a long career in education. After enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces, he met his wife, a Holocaust survivor from Romania.

“My father didn’t take a single step in his life without asking and consulting with the Rebbe,” his son, David Fischer told Kfar Chabad.

Behind this unique correspondence between the Rebbe and Fischer that continued until the winter of 5752 (1992) was a moving reason.

Fischer’s sons told the magazine that their father was orphaned as a 4-year-old boy in the Hungarian city of Pressburg, today Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

At the age of 9 Fischer immigrated to Israel with his grandfather. But shortly after, Fischer was orphaned once more when his grandfather was killed in a car accident.

“The truck was driven by an Arab and until today it isn’t clear to us whether this was a terror attack or a car crash,” his son Benny Fischer said.

So when Moshe Tuvia Fischer started writing to 770 Eastern Parkway, the Rebbe took on the role of a father figure that Fischer was missing in his life.

“The Rebbe wrote to him before every holiday and at every family occasion,” David Fischer said.

“You can say that the Rebbe adopted him,” Benny Fischer said. “Being orphaned twice, he merited to receive a special treatment from the Rebbe…”