Israel Friedman of Ruzhyn - Imprisonment and Escape

Imprisonment and Escape

The Rebbe's extravagant lifestyle and prestige aroused the envy of Tsar Nicholas I and the ire of the Jewish maskilim (members of the Jewish Enlightenment movement); the latter continually plotted to bring about the Rebbe's downfall. In 1838, at the height of a two-year investigation of the murder of two Jewish informers, the Rebbe was arrested by the governor-general of Berdichev on the accusation of complicity in the murders. He was brought before the Tsar, whose own agents told him that the Rebbe was trying to establish his own kingdom and was fomenting opposition to the government. The Tsar had the Rebbe jailed in Donevitz for seven months, and then imprisoned in Kiev for fifteen months, pending a decision on exiling him to the Caucasus or Siberia. No formal charges were ever filed against him, and no trial was ever held. On 19 February 1840 (Shushan Purim 5600) the Rebbe was suddenly released. But he was still subject to the allegation of opposing the government, and was placed under police surveillance at his home, which made it increasingly difficult for his Hasidim to visit him. The Rebbe decided to move to Kishinev, where the district authority was more lenient, and his family joined him. When his Hasidim found out through inside sources that Tsar was going ahead with his plan to exile the Rebbe for his attempts to create a "Jewish kingdom", they bribed the governor of Kishinev to provide the Rebbe with an exit visa to Moldavia. Just as the Rebbe was leaving Kishinev, the government orders for his arrest and deportation arrived. When the Rebbe reached Iaşi, capital of Moldavia, his Hasidim obtained for him a travel pass to cross the border into Austria. His plight became an international cause célèbre, with Hasidim and non-Hasidim throughout Eastern Europe petitioning government officials and even priests to save the Rebbe from extradition and exile.

Moving from town to town, the Rebbe ended up in Sadigura, Bukovina (Carpathian Mountains), home to the second-largest Jewish community in Austria (after Chernowitz). In that town, 40 years before, a 10-year-old boy named Yisroel Donenfeld had disappeared without a trace. The Rebbe presented himself as the long-lost Yisroel, and with the testimony of eight men who affirmed that he was born in Sadigura, he received citizenship papers. His Hasidim helped him purchase property in the town and show proof that he had 20,000 crowns for his support, whereupon he received honorary citizenship and the protection of the Austrian government. In the summer of 1842, the Rebbe's family was finally allowed to join him, on condition that they relinquish all rights to visit or return to Russia.

The Rebbe built another palatial home in Sadigura that was even more beautiful than the one he had left in Ruzhyn. His beis medrash (synagogue) accommodated 3,000 worshippers. Thousands of Hasidim crossed the border from throughout Galicia, Russia and Romania to be with him, and all the Jews in Sadigura became Ruzhiner Hasidim.