Cover Feature

Pıety&
A Portrait of

Heroısm
How the Skulener Rebbe, zt”l,
saved thousands of Romania’s Jews
By Dovid Zaklikowski
Cover Feature A Portrait of Piety & Heroism
Right: The
Skulener
Rebbe in
conversation
Far right:
Romania’s
Chief Rabbi
Moshe Rosen
One of the great chasidic
Rebbes who immigrated to
the United States from the
Socialist Republic of Romania
was Rav Eliezer Zusia
Portugal, zt”l, the Skulener
Rebbe. Revered throughout
the Jewish world for his
indescribable piety, as well as
for having cared for hundreds
of Jewish youth and orphans,
he passed away on 29 Av
5742 (August 18, 1982).
N E W Y O R K | H A C K E N S A C K
M O N S E Y
Starting in 1945, the Skulener Rebbe
began adopting war orphans when
their parents were deported to German
concentration camps. When he was
able to move from the Bessarabian town
of Sculeni to Bucharest, Romania, he
smuggled his “family” into the city and
proceeded to adopt even more children,
establishing an orphanage for their
care. He later wrote in his will that they
should show their appreciation to him
by remaining loyal to Yiddishkeit and
learning Torah as much as possible.
In February 1959, the Skulener
Rebbe was imprisoned together with his
only son, the present Skulener Rebbe,
Rav Yisroel Avrohom Portugal, on
| L A K E W O O D | C H E R R Y H I L L
| P H I L A D E L P H I A
trumped-up charges of spying for Israel
and the United States. This was not the
Skulener Rebbe’s first incarceration under
the Communists. His first confinement
occurred in 1949, for which the
authorities offered no explanation. Two
months later he was released. In 1953 he
was again imprisoned and released.
In 1959, however, the news of the
Skulener Rebbe’s latest arrest made
waves in Jewish communities around
the world. As the London Jewish Chronicle
reported, “The arrest by the Romanian
authorities of Rabbi Zissu Purtogal [sic]
of Bucharest, the Skulener Rebbe, has
been confirmed here by Orthodox Jewish
sources.” The article went on to describe

the efforts being made to obtain his release.
“Mr. Harry Goodman [vice president of
the Agudas Israel World Organization
and editor of the London Jewish Post] has
expressed to the Romanian Minister in
London the deep concern felt by religious
Jews all over the world.”
Reports trickled out concerning the
grave situation. “Rabbi Portugal, the Sage
of Romania who is highly respected there,
and his son were arrested by the authorities
on charges of high treason,” reads a
confidential JDC (American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee) memorandum
from April 1959. “Everybody who knows
Rabbi Portugal feels certain that he was
never involved in anything illegal. He is
a pure and clean gentleman, close to 70
years of age. He is an extremely sick man.
He cannot take any food in prison.”
Hopes for the Rebbe’s release were
not high among Jewish activists. There
were, however, some loopholes they
hoped could be exploited. “It is perfectly
clear that the Romanian government has
reopened emigration on the basis of family
reunion,” a JDC official wrote in a “highly
Graduates maintain
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confidential” letter that May, “although in a
very limited way for a variety of citizens—
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non-Jews and Jews—and to countries
mainly other than Israel. Within the last Since 2005
few days, the Israeli legation in Bucharest
has received some passports for renewal of
visas, and also some new requests for visas
on newly issued passports. This involves
altogether 45 persons.”
In a meeting with Rabbi Moses Rosen,
the chief rabbi of Romania, Romanian
Prime Minister Ion Gheorghe Maurer said
15
that he knew exactly who the Skulener
Rebbe was. “We have thought the whole
thing through. The fact that we took the
15
decision to arrest him also means that we
have considered the risks.”
For years Rabbi Rosen had cooperated
with the government in his quest to aid
the country’s Jews, although as he later
admitted to a reporter, his success came
at the cost of legitimizing the brutal
Communist regime. “This was my sin:
OF
I saved the synagogues. I brought food
so that Jews wouldn’t starve. I brought
education for Jewish children. I sent
hundreds of thousands to Israel. If I could
A division of Agudath Yisrael of America
In conjunction with Fairleigh Dickinson University
Cover Feature A Portrait of Piety & Heroism

The Skulener have shaken hands with Hitler, I’d

Rebbe (second on have been happy to do it to save
the right from the
Lubavitcher 100,000 Jews. And I will be happy
Rebbe) listens as to be judged for these sins. I gave my
the Lubavitcher hand to the Devil, but I saved Jews,”
Rebbe recites a
maamar chasidus, he concluded.
circa 1970. Back in the prime minister’s office
in 1959, Rabbi Rosen was scolded
for encouraging people to leave
the country. “Yes, Chief Rabbi, we
wished to end our Jewish problem,”
the prime minister said, referring to
the more than 100,000 Jews who
lined up for exit visas upon hearing
that Jewish emigration would once
again be permitted. The decision
was reversed when the authorities
saw how many wanted to leave. “We
saved your lives; we granted you
equal rights. Why should there be
such a flight, worse than when the
Jews were under the Fascists?”
Due to Rabbi Rosen’s intervention,
and under intense international
pressure, the Romanians briefly obtaining a British visa for both of them together. I
released the Skulener Rebbe, but they rearrested him would very much appreciate your information on
almost immediately. In July of that year, Goodman this.”
wrote to the secretary general of the United Nations, Goodman began to include the Skulener Rebbe’s
Dag Hammarskjöld, “Our sole concern is that Rabbi son in his efforts, and in October he reported
Portugal should be released, and if possible, allowed to Hammarskjöld, “I beg to enclose herewith a
to leave Romania. Both in New York and in London photocopy of a letter from the British Home Office,
rabbinical positions have been offered to him.” from which you will see that H[er] M[ajesty]’s
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt”l, who was in touch government has authorized the granting of United
with Goodman and other activists in the United Kingdom visas to Rabbi Portugal and his son on
States working on the problem, took issue with application to the British legation in Bucharest.”
the fact that the Skulener Rebbe’s son wasn’t being Hammarskjöld replied that “the permanent
included in the requests for his release. “Common representative of the Romanian People’s Republic
sense would indicate that Rabbi Zusia would hardly to the United Nations has been apprised informally
be willing to depart and leave his son in the present of the willingness of the United Kingdom to grant
situation,” the Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote to Goodman application visas both to Rabbi Portugal and his son
in July 1959. “In view of the above, it would be for going over to the United Kingdom.”
well if you could ascertain what the chances are of One Friday afternoon in August, Rabbi Eliezer

THE SCENIC ROUTE

Taanis 23
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Silver, president of the Union of Orthodox
Rabbis of the United States and Canada
and the chief rabbi of Cincinnati,
received a call from the secretariat of
the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Lubavitcher
Rebbe was on the line, and he asked him
to go to Washington, DC, to advocate for
the Skulener Rebbe and his family.
This would not be the first time Rabbi
Silver had gone to Washington for that
purpose, and although his previous
efforts had been fruitless, he decided
to do it anyway. There, he met with an
elected official from Cincinnati, who sent
a letter to the State Department. The
State Department then sent a letter to the
Romanian Embassy requesting that the
Skulener Rebbe and his son be freed.
The two were released from prison
a short while later. It turned out that at
the exact same time Rabbi Silver made
his trip, the Romanians were awaiting
confirmation of a new ambassador to the
United States, after three years without
one. As Rabbi Silver recalled, when the
State Department’s request arrived, “They
understood that the confirmation was
reliant on the release of the rabbis.”
A few months later, the Skulener Rebbe
and his son left the country. JDC Assistant
Director-General Charles Jordan wrote in
an internal memo, “Rabbi Portugal and his
family…arrived in Brussels on Tuesday,
March 29. There was a very large crowd
of chasidim at the airport who took charge
of the family.”
In April, Goodman described the efforts
that had gone into securing the Skulener
Rebbe’s freedom. “Many are those who
concerned themselves with the problem of
the release of Rabbi Portugal: the Foreign
Office in London, the State Department
in Washington, and the esteemed Rabbi
M.M. Schneerson of Lubavitch in New
York [by] whose wise guidance this action
finally achieved a successful conclusion.”
The Skulener Rebbe eventually moved
to America, later explaining that he chose
to immigrate to the United States over
Eretz Yisrael so he could better help those
who remained in Romania.
The Rebbe settled in Crown Heights,
a few short blocks away from where
the Lubavitcher Rebbe resided, where
he continued his efforts to help Jewish
families trapped behind the Iron Curtain.
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Cover Feature A Portrait of Piety & Heroism

Externe (DIE), and

had connections to top
government officials.
At first, Jakober
balked at the proposal,
a rg u i n g that the
Romanian government
wouldn’t want to appear
inconsistent by releasing
people they claimed were
dangerous criminals.
Others present at the
meeting questioned
the logic, too, but the
Skulener Rebbe refused to
give up. “We cannot make
calculations. We need to
try.”
Eventually the
businessman agreed. The
plan was not inconsistent
with his existing ventures
in the Communist
country, which his
The Skulener employees later described
Rebbe in Romania In a letter he penned shortly after his release, he as more philanthropic than profitable.
with orphans he wrote that he was still not a free man “because from Even before Jakober had signed on, the Skulener
saved. On the
extreme left is the the time I was saved, thank G-d, and left prison Rebbe turned to the Jewish humanitarian aid
current Skulener and Romania, I haven’t rested much or had respite organization, the JDC, for assistance with funding.
Rebbe, Rav Yisroel from my worries about the situation of the Jews who “Since Rabbi Portugal arrived in Antwerp, we are
Avrohom.
remain there, especially the prisoners in the ruthless getting the business,” read an internal memo.
Communist jails.” “Attached is a list of names of 29 families in Romania
In June of 1960, he met with London Jewish that he suggests we do something about.”
businessman Henry Jakober and proposed a plan When Jakober broached the subject with Romanian
for Jakober to pay the Romanian government to officials, at first they resisted the idea. Inspired by
release Jewish political prisoners and allow them to the Skulener Rebbe, however, he persisted, and
leave the country. The money, the Skulener Rebbe eventually cut a deal whereby he would build an
promised, would be raised by him. Jakober, who automated chicken farm in Romania in exchange for
had business dealings in Romania, was known as a the release of 500 Jewish families.
kind person and a philanthropist. Less well known The Skulener Rebbe was overjoyed. When the

GREATNESS
was that he had been recruited by the Romanian plan was finalized in the summer of 1960, he once
foreign intelligence service, the Directia Informatii again turned to the JDC for help. They listened, but

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they were not convinced. The Skulener
Rebbe then reached out to the Lubavitcher
Rebbe, who had been instrumental in
securing his own release from prison, to
help pull strings at the JDC.
After their meeting, the Lubavitcher
Rebbe called Rabbi Binyamin Eliyahu
Gorodetsky, the director-general of the
European Bureau of Chabad-Lubavitch,
who was in Israel at the time, and
described the Skulener Rebbe’s plan and
his request for help securing funding: “He
went to the Joint, and if they give him
$100,000 it will be possible to free 50
families at $2,000 each. He was told that
they have no money. Can you look into a
way to assist him?”
Moses A. Leavitt, the executive vice
chairman of the Joint, was also in Israel at
the time, and Rabbi Gorodetsky met with
him in his Tel Aviv hotel room. “I met
Rabbi Portugal in New York,” Leavitt told
him, “and we cannot trust the people in
Romania who say that they will free Jews
from prison. I do not believe them. They
have proven to be swindlers more than
once.”
Rabbi Gorodetsky started to plead with
him. “If there is even a small possibility,
Rabbi Binyomin Gorodetsky (right) reporting
to the the Lubavitcher Rebbe, circa 1968
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Rabbi Gorodetsky then called the
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was already an abundance of Lubavitch
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Rabbi Gorodetsky accepted the
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“Especially since this was not only saving
them from Romania, but from suffering
in prison,” he wrote, “it was not a time to
quibble over details.”
Afterwards, though, in a letter to his
assistant in Paris, he expressed some
reservations about managing such a large
undertaking in addition to everything else
on his plate. “I have anguish from the Joint,
which doesn’t believe the Skulener Rebbe
and wants people who are approved only
by me.”
In New York, he also met with the
Skulener Rebbe, who told him about
Jakober’s participation and instructed
Rabbi Gorodetsky to get in touch with
Reb Getzel Berger, a wealthy Satmar chasid
in London, to arrange a meeting with
Jakober.
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Cover Feature A Portrait of Piety & Heroism
that despite some efforts he
hadn’t succeeded in getting him
to compromise.
Indeed, when Rabbi
Gorodetsky finally met Jakober,
the businessman said that he
would only go ahead with the
project when all the money had
been deposited into his account
in Lucerne. “I want you to
deposit $200,000, and only then
will I begin the first efforts to
free the Romanian Jews. As long
as you do not deposit the money,
I am not going to do anything.”
“My name is Rabbi Binyomin
Gorodetsky,” he responded. “I
could work with you, but you
should know that before any
results, I am not going to deposit
a penny into your account.
However, I assure you that the
moment I receive a telegram
from one of our people, whom
we have everywhere, that an
imprisoned Jew is freed and
arrives in Vienna or another
Above: The country, I will deposit the money
Skulener Rebbe that same day. I am assuring you
giving a brachah that I have the cash ready, and I will keep my word.
to a chasan and
kallah. If you agree to this condition, good; otherwise the
Right: The deal is over.”
matzeivah of the Jakober sat silently thinking for some time.
Skulener Rebbe in
the Vizhnitzer beis Finally he said, “I’ve heard about you, and I agree.
hachayim in Remember to keep your word.”
Monsey. As they were leaving Jakober’s home, Reb Getzel
Berger asked Rabbi Gorodetsky how he had done it.
“I did not do it,” Rabbi Gorodetsky replied. “This is
all Hashem’s doing.”
Thus began one of the most controversial post-
war rescue missions: the ransoming of Romania’s
Jews.
Rabbi Gorodetsky reported the details of the
meeting, including the contract he had signed with
Jakober, to the Skulener Rebbe, who thanked him
for all of his efforts. “Hashem should help that it
should result in the best outcome.”
He included a list of 100 Jews currently imprisoned
in Romania, adding, “It wasn’t difficult to find these
100, for there are thousands imprisoned. We need
to work on reducing the number.” Rabbi Gorodetsky
78 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / A U G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 8 / / 2 7 AV 5 7 7 8
sent the list of names to Jakober, who immediately
began his negotiations with the Romanian
government.
The chicken farm was built in the small village
of Periş, some 20 miles from the Romanian capital,
before the end of 1960. The leader of the country,
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, visited the site. “He
liked it [and] approved 500 exit visas for Jews, and
ordered five more chicken farms,” recalled Ion Mihai
Pacepa, a Romanian general who defected to the
United States in 1978.
That September, the initial results of the project
were reported to Jordan at the Joint. “Almost all of
the prisoners have been released in R[omania] and
papers for some of them [to leave the country] are
already being prepared.”
Word soon got out that Jews were being rescued,
and people began to turn to Jakober directly to save
their family members. The Skulener Rebbe and Reb
Getzel Berger had their own list of names, and in
order to facilitate an even larger number of rescues,
they raised their own money, some of it from the
families themselves.
Unfortunately, as the numbers increased,
miscommunications and missed deposits began
to plague the project. Rabbi Gorodetsky’s intense
travel schedule added to the confusion, as letters
and telegrams often missed him or reached him late.
The difficulties they faced can be seen in a 1963
letter to Rabbi Gorodetsky, in which the Skulener
Rebbe refers to the prisoners by the numbers they
were assigned: He met #49 while in Israel, #105 was
in Toronto, #13 was in Vienna, and #112’s family
had left without him. “I am conflicted about whether
to pay [Jakober], since [the family was brought out]
while this person was sentenced to 20 years in jail…
but we still need him to save other Jews. …I feel that
we should not withhold the money.”
The freed prisoners’ accounts of the brutal
conditions in the Romanian jails spurred them to
redouble their efforts. “We heard from them about
the men and women who are in captivity in the
hands of known barbarians,” the Skulener Rebbe
wrote. “Some have tragically died in prison because
of the merciless beatings…how can we look away
from these painful outcries? Can we be heartless to
these hapless individuals?”
Perhaps as a reflection of the operation’s success,
the Arab countries soon began to complain that
the Romanians were supporting the State of Israel.
“[Egyptian President] Nasser’s ambassador came to
us and protested the departure of the Romanian Jews, claiming
that we are sending soldiers to Israel,” Romanian officials told
Rabbi Rosen.
The project also faced internal opposition from JDC officials
who felt that if they stopped paying ransom, the Romanians
would let the Jews emigrate for free. Based on his intimate
knowledge of the country, the Skulener Rebbe disagreed. “It
is hard to believe that if we do not ransom them this way,” he
wrote to Rabbi Gorodetsky, “the Romanians will open up the
gates to emigration.”
Tragically, there were many Jews who died in prison before
their numbers reached the top of the list. The Skulener Rebbe
expressed the pain he felt when this happened, due to delays
that he believed were caused by politics. “You know, my friend,
that I am not active in politics,” he wrote, again to Rabbi
Gorodetsky. “Not for honor or livelihood do I do this. It is only
for the saving of Jewish lives that are in the hands of the cruel.”
Rabbi Gorodetsky responded that everyone was doing their
best. Jakober, he wrote, knew that he wouldn’t receive money
before a family emigrated, so he surely wanted them to leave
as soon as possible. “We all know that the situation is serious.”
Although the JDC had only promised a fixed amount at the
beginning of the project, Rabbi Gorodetsky noted that whenever
he called upon Jordan for help, he agreed to increase the Joint’s
contribution. This continued until the list of prisoners was
exhausted. “Hundreds of prisoners and thousands of family
members were saved.”
At that point, the task of helping the rest of Romanian Jewry
to emigrate was handed over to the Israeli government. Rabbi
Gorodetsky wrote, “I traveled to Zurich and provided all of
the details of our rescue
activities over the years.”
That is how a project that
started with an automated
chicken farm became
a major controversial
operation, bringing
300,000 Jews to Israel over
the course of two decades
and turning the Romanian
government, as Nobel
laureate Elie Wiesel wrote,
“into an extraordinary
merchant of human beings
during the postwar years…
In other words, certain
Romanian Jews were
able to obtain visas to go
abroad, especially to Israel,
in return for payments in
dollars.” l