Hadassah Carlebach

The position ultimately went to his cousin, Menachem Mendel, with whom he maintained a close relationship.

At the time of Hadassah's birth, Russia was under communist rule, and religious practice was being suppressed. Despite this, her father was determined to help Jews maintain an orthodox lifestyle, providing food, education (through underground yeshivas), and religious services.

After several arrests, the family was allowed to leave Russia in 1935, moving to Tel Aviv, Palestine. In Tel Aviv, Hadassah was enrolled in a Talmud Torah school, where she was the only girl, marking her first experience learning alongside other children. During this period, her father traveled to Poland to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe and later to Paris, where many Jewish refugees were fleeing from Nazi restrictions.

With the outbreak of World War II, Hadassah, entering her teenage years, began assisting her father in rescue operations, helping Jewish families maintain their religious practices in the face of increasing hardships. Her father also established a community of 60 people, including a synagogue, welfare office, yeshiva, children's home, and vocational workshop.

Even in the midst of war, she ensured that Jewish holidays were observed, reading the Megilla on Purim and helping her father organize the baking of matza for Pesach and the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashana. Her work was carried out in cooperation with the OSE, an organization dedicated to helping Jewish children.

One particularly devastating incident occurred in 1944, when 16 children and two adults from La Martelliere were arrested and deported.

After the war, Hadassah and her family remained in France, continuing to support Jewish life and run homes for survivors in the difficult post-war years. In 1947, the family moved to Brooklyn to be near their cousin, the Lubavitcher Rebbe.