Large Iron Lock of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (Father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe), With the Original Key – Used ...

Large Iron Lock of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (Father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe), With the Original Key – Used to Lock His Storage Room in the City of Ekaterinoslav – With Certificate of Authenticity Signed by Rebbetzin Chana Gurary

Large iron lock of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, with the original key. Used to lock his storage room in Ekaterinoslav (Dnipro).
Lock made by the Shtamp Rekord (Штамп-Рекорд) company in Dnepropetrovsk. Marked: "Артель Штамп Рекорд Днепропетровск" [Artel Shtamp Rekord Dnepropetrovsk], made after 1926 (in 1926, Ekaterinoslav was renamed Dnepropetrovsk and in 2016, it was renamed Dnipro).
Letter of authenticity enclosed (handwritten note, in English), signed in Hebrew by Rebbetzin Chana Gurary (1899-1991), eldest daughter of Rebbe Rayatz: "I hereby gift… a large lock that Chana Schneerson – my sister's mother-in-law [Chana Mushka] brought with her to the United States. After she passed away my sister and my daughter-in-law Mina [wife of R. Shalom Ber (Barry) Gurary] cleaned out her apartment. My sister knew that I collect items with the names of Russian cities on it so she gave it to me. According to my sister, this lock was used by her father-in-low Reb Levik [R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson] for a storage room that he had in Yekatrinislav. Chana took with her a few items from Yekatrinislav when she joined her husband in exile, including this lock. The lock still has the original key". The letter is dated 19th November, 1989.

The Kabbalist and Torah scholar R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (1878-1944) and his wife Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (1880-1964), were the parents of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson – the Lubavitcher Rebbe. R. Levi Yitzchak descended from the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch. The Rebbe Rashab was instrumental in his appointment as rabbi of Ekaterinoslav (today Dnipro), a tenure he held in 1908-1939. After the communist revolution, he devoted his life to preserving the Jewish ember. His brazen activities to spread Judaism led to his imprisonment in 1939 and after a year of investigation and persecution, he was put on trial and exiled to the town of Chiali in Kazakhstan. His wife, Rebbetzin Chana, daughter of the rabbi of Mykolaiv R. Meir Shlomo and of Rebbetzin Rachel Yanovsky, stood by her husband's side with utmost devotion and she too, fearlessly toiled to spread Judaism under the communist rule, first in Ekaterinoslav and later in Chiali, where they lived for more than four years. During this time, she produced ink from weeds, to enable her husband to write his Torah novellae, and later risked her life by carrying his writings while traveling from place to place. In his last months, they lived in Alma-Ata (Almaty), Kazakhstan, where R. Levi Yitzchak passed away on 20th Av 1944.
In 1946, Rebbetzin Chana crossed the Russian border to Poland, and reached Paris in Adar 1947. Upon hearing the news of his mother's arrival in Paris, her son, Rebbe Menachem Mendel, who was already living in Brooklyn, immediately boarded a plane to meet his mother, who had been confined behind the Iron Curtain and whom he had not seen for the past 20 years. The Rebbe stayed in Paris for three months to arrange all the necessary authorizations for her immigration to the US and in Sivan, embarked with his mother on a ship to the US. As written in the enclosed letter of authenticity, Rebbetzin Chana kept this metal lock with her in all her travels and brought it with her to the US. After her arrival in the US, Rebbetzin Chana lived near her son and near 770, on the corner of President St. and Kingstone St., building no. 1418 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn NY. Some three years later, the Rayatz died and Rebbe Menachem Mendel became the Rebbe of Chabad. Rebbetzin Chana was very involved in the lives of the Chassidim and in the various activities of Chabad Chassidism and served on the board of the Chabad women's organization in the US. She passed away on Shabbat, 6th Tishrei 1964 and is buried near the Rayatz and the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

As stated in the letter of authenticity, after Rebbetzin Chana died in 1964, her daughter in law Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka and Rebbetzin Minah Gurary (daughter in law of Rebbetzin Chana and R. Shemaryahu Gurary), tended to Rebbetzin Chana's belongings and to clearing out her apartment. Based on the enclosed letter of authenticity, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson gave this lock as a gift to her sister Rebbetzin Chana Gurary, knowing of her pastime of collecting items bearing names of various Russian cities. The name Dnepropetrovsk appears on this lock.

Lock: Approx. 9.5X15.5 cm. Key: Approx. 7.5 cm. Good condition. Minor damages.