Chabad Discovers Rebbe's Sorbonne Registration Document – No Record Of Any Degrees Granted , No Record Of Any Tests Passed

Please click to enlarge.

JEM, a division of Chabad, so to speak, today released a video that contains a picture of the Sorbonne registration document of Menachem Mendel Schneerson. They're dated November 30, 1937. There are no records of any tests taken and passed or of degrees granted. It seems the Rebbe registered, perhaps to avoid deportation to Russia, perhaps to audit classes, perhaps for both reasons.

In summary, the Rebbe took classes for fewer than 1.5 semesters at the University of Berlin even though he lived in Berlin for about seven years. He was not granted any degree.

He studied, and did poorly in both grades and attendance, at a technical college in Paris. He eventually graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. This college is not part of the Sorbonne.

He then registered as a student at the Sorbonne. There is no record of any tests taken and passed or of degrees granted. All there is is the initial registration document.

A friend of Barry Gourary told me today that Barry told him years ago that his uncle (the Rebbe) was a perpetual student hanging out at these universities, never in any degree-granting program. He audited a few classes and hung out the rest of the time – that would be years of simply hanging out.

Chabad's "discovery" of the Rebbe's registration document seems to confirm this.

Also note what appears to be the birth date given by the Rebbe. I can't make all of it out but the year is definitely 1895. The Rebbe was actually born April 18, 1902. I made highlight of that part of the registration document and posted it to the right here.

Why would the Rebbe make himself seven years older than he actually was? My guess is to avoid a possible draft into the French or, if deported, Russian army. In 1937 the Rebbe was actually 35 years old. By 1940 Britain had extended its conscription age to 40 because of a shortage of soldiers. Making himself seven years older – 42 – made it far less likely that he would be conscripted.

For details on the Rebbe's time in Berlin and Paris, including the discovery of his technical college degree, read this:

Download Golan-Habad_eng.pdf

UPDATE #1, 10-9-07 5:00 PM CDT – I spoke with a consular official at a French consulate in the US. I asked about the French draft during 1935 to 1940. She spoke with a French military officer who told her that all had to register at 18, most were called up by 19. The maximum age for induction into a combat unit was 40. There was no maximum age for serving in non-frontline units.

I've also been told the Rebbe used 1895 as his birth year in French documents dating to at least as far back as 1935. In other words, he claimed to be 40 years old when he was in fact seven years younger, and did so at a time when a war with Germany was very likely. I firmly believe he did this because it made him too old to serve in a combat unit and, until he graduated as an electrical engineer in 1937, age was his only possible exemption from frontline service. (The French system regularly exempted doctors and other community servants and it used others, like engineers, in non-frontline capacities.)

UPDATE #2, 10-9-07 7:40 PM CDT – In the comments below, Anon and MP note that the Rebbe's passport had a listed birth date of 1895, and that this has been noted in previous Chabad publications. Both are correct, although I believe Shaul Shimon Deutsch may have been the person to most publicize this. The date was probably falsified to help the Rebbe escape the Soviet draft and to allow him to leave the Soviet Union to study abroad.

So the date listed on the Sorbonne documents may not have been used for any other reason except that it matched the Rebbe's passport information.

That the Rebbe avoided the Soviet Draft in the late 1920s is not surprising. Many Jews, especially religious Jews, did this and did so for very good reasons.

There is more to this story than I can print here at this time. The Rebbe had a complicated relationship with France. Look for more information to surface on that complex relationship during 2008.