Nechamath Tzion / The Consolation of Zion; Giving an Account of the Progress of the Mission of Rabbi Hyam Zevee Sneersohn, Who Visits the Australian Colonies for the Purpose of Raising Subscriptions towards the Erection of Houses of Refuge on Mount Zion.

Chaim Zvi Schneersohn of Jerusalem (1834-82) was a fourth-generation descendant of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Chassidism. Schneersohn undertook far-reaching fund-raising missions on behalf of Colel Chabad, founded by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi in 1788, the oldest continuously operating charity in Israel to this day. Whilst on these lengthy trips, Schneersohn conceived the notion that the Redemption of the Jews would come about not through Messianic forces, but in a natural way, beginning with small gestures and eventually resulting in the complete Redemption of the Jewish People. Schneersohn felt that in order to realize his plan, he must obtain not just financial support from Jews, but also the active assistance from Christian political and ecclesiastic leaders. After having been successfully feted in Australia, Schneersohn travelled to America, where he was honored with the opportunity to meet and later correspond with President Ulysses Grant - indeed he was even granted honorary American citizenship. In New York in 1872 Schneersohn published his work Palestine and Roumania (see Kestenbaum Sale 6, Lot 16). See I. Klausner, Rabbi Chaim Zvi Schneerson (1943); and Yaari, Sheluchei Eretz Yisrael, pp. 816-19.