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Chabad, also known as Habad, Lubavitch, and Chabad-Lubavitch,[1] is a Orthodox Jewish, Hasidic movement. Chabad is today one of the world's best known Hasidic movements and is well known for its outreach. Organizationally, it is the largest Jewish religious organization in the world.[2][3]
Founded in 1755 by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the name "Chabad" (Hebrew: חב"ד) is a Hebrew acronym for Chochmah, Binah,Da'at (חכמה, בינה, דעת): "Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge" which represent the intellectual underpinnings of the movement.[4][5] The name "Lubavitch" is the Yiddish name for the originally Belorussian village Lyubavichi where the movement's leaders lived for over 100 years.
The Chabad movement represents an intellectual-mystical school of thought established and led by a dynasty of Hasidic rebbes. The movement was based in Lyubavichi (Lubavitch) for over a century, then briefly centered in the cities of Rostov-on-Don, Riga, andWarsaw. From 1940[6] until the present day, the movement's center has been in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.[7][8]
In 1950, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson became the seventh and last Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, and transformed it from a small hasidic movement, into the largest Jewish movement in the world today. He established a network of more than 3,600 institutions that provide religious, social and humanitarian needs in over 1,000 cities, spanning 80 countries and 49 of the 50 American states.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Chabad institutions provide outreach to unaffiliated Jews, and humanitarian aid, as well as religious, cultural and educational activities at Chabad run community centers, synagogues, schools, camps, and soup kitchens.
It has been reported that up to one million Jews attend Chabad services at least once a year,[20][21][22] and in 2013 Chabad expected to reach 8,000,000 Jews worldwide.[23]
History[edit]
The Chabad movement was established in the town of Liozna, Grand Duchy of Lithuania (present day Belarus), in 1775, by RabbiShneur Zalman of Liadi.[6] Rabbi Shneur Zalman was a student of Rabbi Dovber ben Avraham, the "Maggid of Mezritch", the successor of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism. The movement was centered in Russia for over a century. In the 1930s, Chabad relocated its center to Poland, and in the 1940s to the United States.
Today, Chabad is among the world's largest Hasidic groups, and it is the largest Jewish religious organization. The vast network of Chabad institutions have placed the movement at the forefront of Jewish communal life today.
While the movement has spawned a number of other groups, the Chabad-Lubavitch branch appears to be the only one still active, making it the movement's main surviving line.[24] In the early 1900s, Chabad-Lubavitch legally incorporated itself under Agudas Chasidei Chabad ("Association of Chabad Hasidim").