Exclusive: Never Before Seen Pictures Of The Chabad Rebbetzin

These exclusive pictures were taken on November 12, 1985 in the dining room of the Rebbe's house in Crown Heights. Note that she did not cover a large portion of her hair.

This is her American naturalization picture taken in the early 1940s:

This is another photo of her:

Here's another picture of her taken while she was allegedly standing on a balcony watching a Lag Ba'omer parade in Crown Heights:

Update 5:12 pm CST – I added another picture from the same source at the top opf the post and immediately below. As you can see, it clearly shows that it is her real hair and not a wig:

Comments

[Confused]

she looks angry and sad in all these pictures. i bet she regretted what her life became.

Posted by: ah-pee-chorus | February 20, 2012 at 09:27 AM

True, she probably always wanted to barhop and probably was jealous why she could not wear those dresses with the plunging necklines that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's wife wore.

[Marc]

I love the glamorous 1940's photos.
Sad how tacky and frumpy has become the norm for the super frums.

[ah-pee-chorus]

True, she probably always wanted to barhop ....Posted by: Confused

maybe she wanted to stay in paris and live a private cosmopolitan life. she may have rejected religion and been unable to get away. she might have had an unhappy childhood. later she may have been devastated by not having children, or perhaps she suffered from depression. but her unhappiness is undeniable.

[ah pee]

i started to use it a few months ago. I thought it was cute. I have others in mind, but with your permission would like to retain my moniker. LMK if I should change it. warmest regards.

[ah-pee-chorus]

you know the answer but dont care.thats why you chose it.

[Zalman]

FK: You apparently didn't comprehend anything I said, yet you continue to spew drivel, which kind of supports my original point. So thank you.

[Badchan]

If you look very closely, you can see the antenna under her hai. Items an open secret in Chabad that she was a martian.

[Moshe MS]

Freeda Kugel made a shaitel for the holy rebbetzin using lokshen.

To this day, it is known as the lokshen kugel shaitel. People used to come from far and wide to marvel at the holy rebbetzin Chaya Mushka's shaitel. It had raisins and maraschino cherries.

The shaitel could also be be used for lunch in an emergency if there were no lox and bagels available. But it was the Rebbe's job to pick up lox and bagels for lunch. Sometimes he would forget. So busy he used to be.
Posted by: WoolSilkCotton | February 20, 2012 at 08:00 AM

Shatnez, you are hilarious!! Let me guess your next bit: "You are crazy, I know you are but what am I?"

Hopefully next year you can upgrade to the humor of a 6 year old!

[me.yahoo.com/a/nys1evEw35H3RJPcKqqLm9tK8z1Q6QVTww--]

May G-d bless her. Daughter of a Tsadiq, so pure, kind, full of dignity. A true mother of Israel full of Mitzvah's, suffering and frailty. Please respect the dignity of this honarable lady.

[ZIY]

1) From the few times I saw the Rebetzin up close, it looked like she WAS wearing a wig, with a shawl or other covering (netting) on top. The color of the wig was light blond, not white. The coiffure was atypically high in front - not the normal natural hair of an elderly lady. This, however, was outside, when she would return Saturday night from 770 to President Street. Also, this was in the 1980s, when she was already in her 80s.

2) I saw this video (from which the stills were grabbed) long ago, while the Rebbe was still alive, in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I think Chaim Baruch Halberstam showed it on a 5 Tevet celebration, or some occasion relating to her passing. We were only shown snippets of it, particularly the part where she says that the books belong to AGU"CH because "my father and the books belong to the chasidim" (I paraphrase). This supported the plaintiff's (AGU"CH) argument that all possessions of a Rebbe, especially if purchased with "Ma'amad" money, in reality belong to the community. Point is that this video was floating about for a while. I never saw the full hour or so. [IIRC, some of these still grabs MAY have already been printed in Yuri Yanover's "Rokdim u'Bochim." I do not have it with me now, but if someone does, please let me know if it is there. Thanks.]

3) IMHO, the still grabs do NOT show the rebbetzin's hair fully uncovered. Rather, it shows that she was wearing both a wig & a loose tichel over it - & that the wig slipped back, revealing a couple inches of her natural hair in the front (something I've seen happen to other elderly ladies wearing wigs). It seems very unlikely that an ill woman at her advanced age would have such robust full hair. [There are many elderly women, even non-religious, who begin wearing wigs at this age for precisely this reason.]

4) As for her smoking - I heard several times from a close friend who is in his mid 80s, who grew up in Crown Heights & studied in 770 in the 1940s, that he vividly remembers the Rebetzin during those years ("Moussia," as he called her) hanging out in a small Jewish grocery store, corner Albany Avenue & St. John's Place (the place doesn't exist for a long time), with one foot on a milk box, smoking away (on Charlston's, I believe) & talking it up with the grocer.

5) Wearing pants (or pants-suit) in Europe - This is the first time I hear of this. Source please, Shmarya?

6) As for the "halachot" of covering a wig with a tichel - this is more minhag. So, for example, one can see even in one community, such as Satmar, that there are those women who wear the pillbox hat on top of the wig, there are those who don't, & there are those (especially if from a Rebbishe family) who will wear a full tichel over the wig. So one cannot generalize. At least later in life, the Rebbetzin may have been following a more stringent Rebbishe (or personal) minhag, not adopted by the rest of the Lubavicher chasidim, to add some cover over her wig.

7) As for the Tzemach Tzedek's ruling etc. - I think the point for recent wig-wearing is that whereas in earlier years (19 c.) wigs looked very artificial & were cumbersome on the head & could have led to woman taking them off etc., nowadays they are better looking & fit better, so women would WANT to wear them. (This was also Chabad's argument against wearing only a tichel.)

I am just pointing out some details here - despite all the peripheral dribble that oozes on the comment posts here once in a while - just to set the record straight from one who has some first & second hand info.

[Shmarya]

Please.

Look at the bottom picture. It's clearly her own hair. No wig can look like that. Note the part and bare spot.

She didn't cover her hair in Europe.

She didn't cover it while working.

She wore pants (at times) in Europe and smoked in public.

The Tzemach Tzedek's ruling was operable, but it was ignored by many female Lubavitchers – one of those was Chaya Mussia.

And Tzemach Tzedek was very clear – wigs that look like actual hair are forbidden.

So the better wigs are the worse they are according him.

The Rebbe didn't officially deviate from that line until the 1960s.

[ZIY]

What I see (from these stills only - I did not see the video in a while) is that approximately 2 inches above her forehead there is another wave of hair which does not look natural. I propose that this is the point where the real hair meets the wig. (In the picture from the Lag b'Omer rally too, one can see that the top looks more artificial - like a wig - whereas on the sides near the ears looks like some natural hair is peeking out.)

Also, did you ever see an 80-something woman with such a high "Hairspray"-style natural 'do???

& again, where did you hear/read that she wore pants in Europe?

[Shmarya]

Well, you're not a wig or hair maven, that's for sure.

Have I ever seen "an 80-something woman with such a high "Hairspray"-style natural 'do???"

Yes. Many times.

My parents were in the beauty supply, perfume and wig business for many decades.

But what you need to look at is the right temple area and the right 'sideburn.' No wig can look like that.

As for Europe, people saw her, people knew her – just as people she worked with here knew her.

[Not impressed.]

To spend so much time on the way the rebbetzin had her hair covered, yes shaitl, no shaitl. What a waste of time.
Shmarya, please post a picture of your shmock... it would be interesting to see if we can identify your mohel.

[zany]

there is no way that at that age, that its her natural hair.
where is your source that she were pants? please don't repeat bring a source.
or that she did nit cover her hair at work for that matter.

and yes that video has been around on hundreds if not thousands of hard drives for years.

[aaron]

she is old . she can show her hair even if she's the 'rebbe's wife. mushka and her husband MMS , never did what they were supposed to do . she did not cover her hair and never had kids . weird !

they prob rarely had sex . that's why !

but MMS did ordered his flock to have as many kids as possible .

[תושי פעיס.]

שמאריה יו ראק!!!!!

[Chaim]

There are also pre-Holocaust 1930s photos of her in hat & fancy fashionable dress. She signed her letter in German "Fanya". Put 2+2 together...