Shalom Dovber Levin
Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, librarian and historian (b. 1948), director of the central Chabad library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad in Brooklyn and compiler of Kehot's Hebrew histories of Chabad in Tsarist Russia, the USSR, the Holy Land and the United States. Chabad-side.
| Shalom Dovber Levin | |
|---|---|
| Image | |
| Born | 1948 (per Chaim Miller) |
| Died | |
| Nationality | Israeli-born; American |
| Residence | |
| Occupation | Rabbi; director and curator of the Library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad (Central Chabad-Lubavitch Library), Brooklyn; historian and editor |
| Known for | Toldot Chabad series of Hebrew histories of Chabad (Kehot); Treasures from the Chabad Library (2009); editor of the Igrot Kodesh letters of the sixth and seventh Rebbes |
| Parents | |
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| Sibling(s) | |
| Education | |
| Predecessor | |
| Website | |
Shalom Dovber Levin (also spelt Levine) is a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, librarian and historian. He is the director and curator of the central Chabad library at 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, the library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad.[1][2] He compiled the Hebrew Toldot Chabad histories of the movement, published by the movement's own Kehot Publication Society. They cover Chabad in Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union, the Holy Land and the United States.[3] He has also edited many volumes of the Rebbes' letters and writings.[4] His histories are Chabad-side sources. They are compiled by a Chabad employee from documents and memoirs held in the movement's own library, and are published by its own press. This page labels them accordingly.
Career
In an interview published by Anash.org, Levin says that he came to the United States from Israel as a young man "to study at the Chabad yeshivah in New York and to be near the Rebbe". He recalls: "In 1976, three years after my wedding, the Rebbe offered me a job looking after the central Chabad library, creating a catalog and organizing what was already an enormous collection, comprising some fifty thousand volumes."[4] The Chabad-side biographer Chaim Miller gives his birth year as 1948. Miller dates his hiring to 1977, as librarian of the collection of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch.[5] Levin says that the other part of his job was editing new publications, and that "to date, I have edited over 100 volumes of letters, writings and lectures of the Chabad Rebbes over the generations".[4] Chabad.org calls him "Director and Curator at the Central Chabad-Lubavitch Research Library" and "A renowned expert on Jewish law and the history of Chabad". It notes his "new critical edition of Shulchan Aruch Harav".[2] In 2010 Chabad.org described him as "the library's chief librarian".[6]
The library case
According to Miller, around March 1985 Levin's assistant Yitzchak Wilhelm noticed that books were missing and told him: "I think we have a thief". Video surveillance was then installed in the library.[5] The Court of Appeals later recorded that the removals by Barry Gourary "were discovered by video surveillance". They led to the lawsuit Agudas Chasidei Chabad v. Gourary.[7][5] Miller writes that in July 1985 the Rebbe's secretary Yehuda Krinsky asked the two librarians to "prepare documents for the case". They "spent the next four months plowing through tens of thousands of documents" and were in daily contact with Chabad's lawyers.[5] Miller draws in part on Levin's own Chabad-side account of the case, Mishpat Ha-Sefarim — Didan Natzach, which the library has published online.[5] The court found that the library had been delivered to Agudas Chasidei Chabad "to be held in trust for the benefit of the religious community of Chabad Chasidism".[8] See Schneerson library case and Agudas Chasidei Chabad.
Works on Chabad history
The Chabad headquarters' announcement of the Tsarist volume calls Levin a "Chabad historian" and "director of the Central Chabad-Lubavitch Library and Archive Center". It says the book is "based on original documents and memoirs, housed in the Central Chabad-Lubavitch Library", and lists his companion volumes on Soviet Russia, the Holy Land and the United States.[3] The Tsarist volume is a selection of chapters, not a continuous history.[3]
The independent critic David Berger lists Levin's histories of Chabad in the United States and in Soviet Russia among the main secondary works on the movement's history.[9] Miller cites Levin's volumes throughout his biography of Menachem Mendel Schneerson.[5]
Treasures from the Chabad Library (Kehot, 2009) is a bilingual Hebrew–English catalogue of the library's rarest items. According to Chabad.org it has 154 entries over 564 pages. Levin called it "a compilation of 35 years of work".[6][10]
Use on Powerbase
Two of Levin's histories have their own pages:
- History of Chabad in the USSR - 1989
- History of Chabad in Tsarist Russia - Selected Chapters, 1770-1920
His volumes are also cited, and labelled Chabad-side, on these pages:
- Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, for the 1927 arrest and the Soviet underground
- Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, for Tomchei Temimim, the move to Rostov and the 1910 rabbinical conference
- Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (Tzemach Tzedek)
- Dovber Schneuri
- Shmuel Schneersohn
- Chabad-Lubavitch timeline
Where an independent or archival source exists, the pages give it alongside Levin. Examples are the OGPU files published by Irina Osipova, and academic studies.
Works
- Toldot Chabad b'Artzot HaBrit, 5660–5710 [History of Chabad in the United States, 1900–1950]. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society, 1988. 536 pp. (Hebrew).
- Toldot Chabad b'Russia HaSovietit, 5678–5710 [History of Chabad in Soviet Russia, 1917–1950]. Brooklyn: Kehot / Otzar HaChassidim, 1989. ISBN 0-8266-5331-6 (Hebrew).
- Toldot Chabad b'Eretz HaKodesh, 5537–5710 [History of Chabad in the Holy Land, 1777–1950]. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society. 348 pp. (Hebrew).
- The Lubavitch Library (Hebrew). New York: Library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, 1993.
- Treasures from the Chabad Library. Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society, 2009. 564 pp. ISBN 978-0-8266-0657-0 (Hebrew and English).
- Toldot Chabad b'Russia HaTzarit – Perakim Nivcharim, 5530–5680 [History of Chabad in Tsarist Russia – Selected Chapters, 1770–1920]. Brooklyn: Kehot / Otzar HaChassidim, 2010. ISBN 978-0-8266-5327-7 (Hebrew).
- (ed.) Igrot Kodesh of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. New York: Kehot, 1982–2014, 17 vols.
- (ed.) Igrot Kodesh of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. New York: Kehot, 1987–2009, 30 vols.
See also
References
- ↑ "Lubavitch Library", Library of Agudas Chassidei Chabad – Ohel Yosef Yitzchak Lubavitch, home page, naming Levin as director (מנהל). Chabad-side.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Shalom DovBer Levine, "Early Hebraica at the Chabad Library: Manuscripts, Incunabula, Antique Books and Leaflets", Chabad.org (author note). Chabad-side.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "New Volume on Chabad History Published", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), 21 September 2010. Chabad-side.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "The Unauthorized Renovation", Anash.org, 2 January 2025 (interview with Shalom DovBer Levine, recorded 1994, 2007 and 2023). Chabad-side.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Chaim Miller, Turning Judaism Outward: A Biography of the Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Brooklyn: Kol Menachem, 2014, ch. 13 ("The Rebbe's Army, 1978–1987") and bibliography (Kindle edition; no print page numbers). Chabad-side.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chanie Kaminker, "Rare Jewish Treasures Accessible in New Book", Chabad.org, 16 February 2010. Chabad-side.
- ↑ Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Gourary, 833 F.2d 431 (2d Cir. 17 November 1987), ¶ 6. Court record (civil).
- ↑ Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Gourary, 650 F. Supp. 1463 (E.D.N.Y. 6 January 1987) (Sifton, J.), at 1474. Court record (civil).
- ↑ David Berger, The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, London and Portland, Oregon: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, ch. 1, p. 4 n. 1. Critical source.
- ↑ Shalom Dovber Levine, Treasures from the Chabad Library, Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8266-0657-0, title and copyright pages. Chabad-side.