Several years ago, I went with my family to visit the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

Like so many Americans, we stood there looking at that famous cracked bell and tried to imagine how much history had passed through that room. As we stood in Independence Hall, we spoke about liberty and freedom. We took a moment to appreciate the blessing of living in America as proud Jews.

But this week I read something I had never known before.

The Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, had been there as well. He actually laid a floral wreath at this very site.

Here is the fascinating historical background.

Just over two years before this historic visit, the Previous Rebbe had been miraculously freed from a death sentence in a Soviet prison for leading Judaism underground. It was on the 12th day of Tammuz in 1927, which we will be celebrating on the Hebrew calendar tomorrow, that he was released.

He was forced to leave Russia, and eventually the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in America for the first time on September 17, 1929, to raise money for the Russian Jews he was supporting, and also to awaken the spirit of American Jewry.

At the time, many Jews were worried about America. They called it the “treife medina,” the “unkosher country.” Along with the financial opportunity of America came great difficulty in living a Jewish life. Shabbos observance was hard. Keeping kosher was hard. Jewish education was weak and these Immigrant parents were watching their children become Americanized.

For ten months, he traveled across America, going to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis, Boston, and ending in Washington, D.C.

Jewish newspapers from that time detailed every stop with dramatic reports. It seemed like America had been transformed into a vibrant Chassidic court. Train stations filled with huge crowds. People waited for hours to see him. Jews who had drifted far from Jewish life came to see him, to hear him speak, and to have a chance to meet him.

When the Rebbe arrived at the train station in Philadelphia, a remarkable delegation of thirty rabbis came to greet him, along with........

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