1917. The Communist Party had wrested control of the Russian Empire, and the Party's Yevsekzia- "Jewish Section" - embarked on a ruthless war against Judaism. Schools, synagogues and religious institutions were shut down. Religious leaders were imprisoned, and many were shot in the underground execution chambers of the Secret Police.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe led the struggle to keep Judaism alive in Soviet Russia, dispatching his emissaries along the length and breadth of the land to establish underground schools, mikvahs, and supply lines of financial aid and kosher food.

In the summer of 1927, agents of the Yevsekzia paid a midnight visit to Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak's Leningrad apartment to arrest him. His daughter, the future Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka managed to get word out of the arrest and set in motion the international effort that would commute the death sentence placed on Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak and obtain his release from internal exile in the USSR. Today, the 12th of Tammuz, marks the anniversary of his release.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak was allowed to leave Russia in 1927 but the network of teachers and activists remained in place, and he continued to direct its activities from the other side of the Iron Curtain until his passing in 1950, when the Rebbe assumed the leadership of Chabad Lubavitch.

In the darkest years of anti-religious persecution, the Rebbe maintained contact with the Jews of the Soviet Union through many secret channels, even sending emissaries in the guise of tourists and business travellers. With the collapse of Communism, the Rebbe's network simply moved aboveground, to continue to provide material and spiritual aid to Russian Jewry in light of day.

Today, there are Chabad Lubavich emissaries in the former Soviet Union, lighting up 350+ cities to help Jews reclaim their heritage. When the war in Ukraine broke out, Chabad Lubavitch shluchim were at the forefront of the relief efforts, encouraging their communities and they are still there, providing spiritual and material support.

In this week's parshah we read how the evil prophet Bilaam tried to curse the Jews, however instead of curses, G-d only allowed his mouth to say blessings.

As blessings go, one of them seems a little strange; "Behold!" Bilaam prophesied, "It is a nation that will dwell in solitude and not be reckoned among the nations."

Bilaam was amazed by the Jewish people's survival in the face of constant oppression and persecution. What was the secret, he wondered, of their success?

In praise of the Jewish people, he proclaimed, "The reason they continue to exist is that they are 'a people apart.' The success of the Jewish people lies in the fact that they direct their lives according to the fundamentals and teachings of their Torah, 'uvagoyim lo yitchashov' — they do not 'reckon' what the nations of the world think or say about them."

The Torah instructs us to follow the law of the country that we live in, however when this law tries to obstruct our religious freedom, the Jewish response has been to continue holding strong to our traditions.

We are fortunate to be living in a very different era to Soviet Russia with a government and a police force that protects us, rather than persecutes us. The challenge for us, living in a benevolent country and a benevolent era, is to take that steadfastness that our grandparents and great-grandparents had to have and make sure that we have the same resolve in our religious lives