Abstract
[...]the Va’ad Ha-Hatzalah vouched on many occasions that the “organization is [able] and willing to guarantee [the immigrant rabbis’] future maintenance from the day they will arrive [in the] country, and we guarantee to the Government of the United States that this group [will] not become public charges.” The State Department expected “that other Rabbis of the Chabad will make similar applications.” Since “the intent of the law,” according to the State Department, was “to enable religious bodies to bring needed Ministers rather than to exempt such persons from quota requirements simply because of their vocational status,” the question was whether Chabad rabbis were eligible for non-quota visas. The future seventh Rebbe of Lubavitch was a student in Paris when World War II began. Since he had not, “for at least two years immediately preceding the time of his application for admission to the United States” been serving as a “minister” to any congregation, as the law demanded, he seemed to be ineligible to apply for a non-quota visa to immigrate to the United States. [...]the arrival of Orthodox rabbis after World War I did much to swing Orthodoxy to the religious right.