Online Auction 41 - Chabad

Special Chabad Auction on the Occasion of the New Year and in Honor of Chai (18th) Elul – Birthday of the Great Chassidic Luminaries, the Baal Shem Tov and the Baal HaTanya

Hat Worn by Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (Mother of the Lubavitcher Rebbe)

Opening: $1,000
Sold for: $7,500
Including buyer's premium

Hat worn by Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, mother of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitch Rebbe.

Blue cloth hat, set with white beads; blue velvet ribbon at its front. Made by Edgar A. Stevens, Evanston/Highland Park, Illinois (USA), ca. 1950s.


Letter of authenticity enclosed (handwritten note, in English), signed in Hebrew by Rebbetzin Chanah Gurary (1899-1991), eldest daughter of Rebbe Rayatz: "I hereby gift… the Edgar Stevens blue hat worn by my sister's mother-in-law's Chana. My sister gave it to me when she cleaned out the apartment. I wore it a few times."

Letter of authenticity dated 26 November, 1989.


There is a well-known picture of Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson at the 1956 Lag B’Omer Parade, where she is seen wearing a dark-colored hat with white beads, similar in shape and style to the present hat.


Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (1880-1964) mother of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson – the Lubavitcher Rebbe and daughter of the rabbi of Mykolaiv (Ukraine) R. Meir Shlomo and his wife, Rebbetzin Rachel Yanovsky. Married R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, and with utmost devotion joined him in fearlessly spreading Judaism under the communist rule, first in Ekaterinoslav and later in his exile to Chiali, Kazakhstan. 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. These writings were later printed in his series of books Likutei Levi Yitzchak on the Zohar. R. Levi Yitzchak passed away in Alma-Ata (Almaty), Kazakhstan in 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 20 years. The Rebbe stayed in Paris for three months to arrange all the necessary authorizations for her immigration to the United States and in Sivan, embarked with his mother on a ship to the US. After her arrival in the United States, Rebbetzin Chana lived near her son and near 770, on the corner of President St. and Kingstone St. no. 1418 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. 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 Chabad activities and served on the board of Chabad women's organization in the United States.

She passed away on Shabbat, 6th Tishrei 1964 and is buried near the Rayatz and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Beit Chana network of girls' schools was named after her.


Approx. 22 cm. Good condition. Stains and minor blemishes.


PLEASE NOTE: Item description was shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.