Camp pardes chana
Several months later, the Canadian government announced that it would be issuing a limited number of visas to students in Shanghai. ( Click Here to read accounts of the terrible fate of the Jews of Chelm r’l. Hugs from your loving sister, who wishes you all the best from afar. Dear Brother, I ask you to write to us quite often we can send you our photos when you’ll be at your place, I also ask you to send us your photos. Kind regards from all of us who wish you all the best from afar. Warmest regards from Mother, Mendel, Shmulek and Moszek – they wish you good luck and happy and safe journey, and all the best wherever you are. We are all well, we only miss our father. We have everything, we even managed to make shoes for the children, Szmulek will also have new shoes. Mendel is already as tall as you are, so he can wear your coat, which we received from Kałuszyn Mother and I work in the shop. Shmulek and Moszek go to school and they study well. My dear Brother, Mother deserves to be written twice a week, because your letters bring happiness to Mother and me. We were sent regards from Chaim, but he hasn`t written to us yet. We did not receive the package from your friend from Vilnius. Our home and the shop are at the same place. Nothing has changed here – thank God, we are all healthy. We received your package with the tea from Japan, for which we thank you.
#Camp pardes chana free
The following is a free translation of one such letter, written by his sister Ruchla: Rabbi Kramer sent packages from Japan to his family in Nazi-occupied Chelm, and received letters in response. He was appointed manager (Menahel Gashmi) of the yeshivah, catering to the physical welfare of his fellow students. He helped establish a new branch of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshivah under the auspices of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He then continued on to Shanghai, China, where he settled for a longer period of time. Rabbi Kramer traveled to Kobe, Japan and stayed there for six weeks after obtaining a temporary visitor’s permit. Students of other yeshivas, who were also attempting to obtain visas, said that they wanted a person like Rabbi Kramer to help them. Word of Rabbi Kramer’s instrumental role in assisting with the visa distribution quickly spread through the community. Sugihara provided Rabbi Kramer with visas for the boys in the Lubavitch Yeshiva, and Rabbi Kramer assisted Sugihara in stamping some of the thousands of other visas which he issued. Rabbi Kramer arrived in Vilna, where he made contact with Chiune Sugihara, the Vice Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. However, since he had a bent-over posture due to prolonged yeshivah study, and the snow had turned his beard white, the officers mistook him for an old invalid and allowed him across the border into Lithuania. Following the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s instructions, he attempted to smuggle himself into Lithuania among a group of friends but was discovered by border personnel. Rabbi Kramer then returned to Otvosk, Poland before continuing on to Warsaw. This was the last time Rabbi Kramer would ever see his father. The yeshiva functioned until the war broke out in 1939, at which time the students were sent home. In 1938 the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, instructed Rabbi Kramer to establish a yeshiva in the town of Kalazhin. Rabbi Kramer studied in Warsaw until the age of 17, at which time the yeshivah relocated to the city of Otvosk (Otwock).
The Gerer Rebbe advised him to go to the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Warsaw, as it was a reputable learning institution. When he was twelve years old his father took him to the Gerer Rebbe to ask which Yeshiva he should attend, as he was progressing well in his learning. Rabbi Kramer fondly recalled playing with the children of the Gerer Rebbe as a child. His parents, Yitzchak Michel and Sarah Ita Kramer, were of an illustrious family of Gerer chassidim. Rabbi Aryeh Leib Kramer was born in the city of Chelm, Poland, on Shabbos, 13th of Shvat 5678 (January 26, 1918).
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