"Hei Teves. The Rebbe declared this date an auspicious day for all generations to come...calling for...the expansion also of the library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad-Lubavitch, to benefit Klal Yisroel"
-- Luach Colel Chabad
A history of joy and celebration, sacrifice and pain, trial and triumph. All deeply rooted in the very soul of the Rebbes and their Chasidim.
The Central Chabad Library and Archive Center of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, located at Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, is the crown jewel of Chabad-Lubavitch and is home to a wealth of Chabad treasures and heritage.
The priceless collection was started by the founder of Chabad, the Alter Rebbe (1745-1812), and expanded with each subsequent Lubavitcher Rebbe. Throughout this timespan it survived the ravages of Jewish travails—sustaining considerable losses in fires, confiscations by hostile governments, and relocations within Eastern Europe as Jews fled from one place to another—until finally making its way home, safely, to us, here in the United States.
Today the research library has one of the largest private collections of Judaica texts in the world, and is open to students and scholars seeking access to rare books and manuscripts not available elsewhere.
The Library is the repository for the writings, the kesovim, of the seven generations of Chabad Chasidus. It is from these precious manuscripts that the continuous flow of new and revised seforim of Kehot are published and constantly updated.
In addition, the library has created periodic exhibitions of library artifacts. These fascinating, carefully curated exhibits are open to the general public, and attract thousands of visitors, men, women, and children from all walks of life.
The library is maintained by a full time staff of gifted librarians and staff who catalog, archive and restore the treasured artifacts, archives, photographs, manuscripts and books. The library is constantly adding more Judaic titles and materials to update its ever growing collection. In recent years, the contents of the entire collection have been meticulously cataloged and uploaded online at www.chabadlibrary.org. The catalog is constantly updated.
To the Rebbe, the library represented the spiritual legacy of the Chabad Lubavitch movement.
We all remember how In 1985, the Rebbe’s precious library was violated, and his anguish was palpable. Eighteen painful months later, on the fifth of Teves, the United States Federal Court confirmed that the books, like the Rebbe himself, belong to every Chasid and every Jew.
The Rebbe and the books of the library were vindicated, and Hei Teves became OUR Chasidic Yom Tov, and a testimony to how the Rebbe continues to live on through each of his Chasidim.
As we celebrate thirty-six years from Hei Teves, we have the special opportunity and merit to strengthen, support, sustain and grow the Rebbe’s library.
This campaign is coordinated by Machne Israel - Lubavitch World Headquarters.