By the Grace of G-d 8th of Elul, 5717 Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

I was pleased to receive your letter, with enclosure. Needless to say that in the future too, you can write in English. The important thing is that the contents of the letter should be satisfactory.

I have read your letter and enclosure with much interest, and I trust that you, yourself, have drawn the proper inferences that they imply. By this I mean how much can be achieved, even under the most adverse circumstances, in the field of Kosher Jewish education; how much even one single family can do in creating a completely new atmosphere in a remote corner of the earth. Although the selflessness of Lubavitcher Chassidim, seasoned under the Soviet regime,¹ certainly contributed a great deal to the success of the work, it would have been extremely difficult to do much without the aid of local residents, in this case your family, with your late father of blessed memory, at its head. All this emphasizes once again that where there is a will there is a way.

It is generally recognized that nothing in this world gets lost, even in the physical world, how much more so in the world of the spirit and soul. Thus the belief in the immortality of the soul is not just a belief; it is a conviction. It is therefore self-evident that the greatest thing you can do for your father’s immortal soul is to carry on his good work, especially as this kind of work cannot be placed on anybody else’s shoulders, and, moreover, inasmuch as your family has been doing the pioneer work in Australia, to make that continent also a fitting place for the Divine presence. I trust also that all the members of your family will make a concerted effort to continue this work, disregarding any difficulty or financial problem, and not to hesitate to increase the budget of our institutions, even where a deficit is implied. For a deficit can always be retrieved in due course, whereas any opportunity in education that is lost is hard to retrieve.

With prayerful wishes and regards to you, and all the members of your family and,

Thank you for the enclosed letter from Mrs. Clare Cohen, contents of which were conveyed to the Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, in order to come in contact with Rabbi Serebransky.²