| Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson | |
|---|---|
| Lubavitcher Rebbe | |
Menachem Mendel Schneerson at the Lag BaOmer parade in Brooklyn, 1987.
| |
| Synagogue | 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY |
| Began | 10 Shevat 5711 / January 17, 1951 |
| Predecessor | Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 5, 1902 OS (11 Nissan5662)[1] Nikolaev, Kherson Governorate,Russian Empire (present-dayMykolaiv, Ukraine) |
| Died | June 12, 1994 NS (3 Tammuz5754) (aged 92)[2] Manhattan, New York, USA |
| Buried | Queens, New York, USA |
| Dynasty | Chabad Lubavitch |
| Parents | Levi Yitzchak Schneerson ChanaYanovski Schneerson |
| Spouse | Chaya Mushka Schneerson |
| Semicha | Rogatchover Gaon |
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (April 5, 1902 – June 12, 1994), known to many as the Rebbe,[3][4] was an Orthodox rabbi, and the last Lubavitcher Rebbe. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.[5][6][7][8]
As leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he "took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the Holocaust and turned it into one of the most influential and controversial forces in world Jewry,"[9] with an international network of over 3000 educational and social centers.[10][11] The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled and synagogues.[12]
Schneerson's published teachings fill more than 300 volumes and he is noted for his contributions to Jewish continuity and religious thought,[13] as well as his wide-ranging contributions to traditional Torah scholarship.[14]He is recognized as the pioneer of Jewish outreach.[15][16]
In 1978, the U.S. Congress designated Schneerson's birthday as the national Education Day U.S.A.,[17] honoring his role in establishing the Department of Education as an independent cabinet-level department.[18] In 1994, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his "outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity."[19]
Contents
[hide]Life[edit]
1902–1923[edit]
Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born on Friday, April 18, 1902, equivalent to 11 Nissan, 5662, in the town of Nikolaev.[20] His father was Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, a renowned Talmudic scholar and authority on Kabbalah and Jewish law.[21] His mother was Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (nee Yanovski). He was named after the third Chabad rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, from whom he was descendent in direct paternal lineage.
In 1907, when Menachem Mendel was six years old, the Schneersons moved to Yekatrinislav (today, Dnepropetrovsk), where Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was appointed Chief Rabbi of the city. He served until 1939, when he was exiled by the Soviets to Uzbekistan.[22]Schneerson had two younger brothers, Dov Ber who was murdered in 1944 by Nazi collaborators and Yisrael Aryeh Leib, who died in 1952 while completing doctoral studies at Liverpool University.[20]
Schneerson who was described as a slim boy with blond hair,[23] was gifted with extraordinary intelligence and empathy.[24] During his youth, he received a private education and was tutored by Zalman Vilenkin from 1909 through 1913. When Schneerson was eleven years old, Vilenkin informed the boy's father that he had nothing more to teach his son.[25] At that point, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak began teaching his son Talmud and rabbinic literature, as well as Kabbalah. Schneerson proved gifted in both Talmudic and Kabalistic study and also took exams as an external student of the local Soviet school.[26] He was considered an Illui and genius, and by the time he was seventeen, he had mastered the entire Talmud, some 5,894 pages with all its early commentaries.[27]
Throughout his childhood Schneerson was involved in the affairs of his father's office. He was also said to have acted as an interpreter between the Jewish community and the Russian authorities on a number of occasions.[28] Levi Yitzchak's courage and principles were a guide to his son for the rest of his life. Many years later, when he once reminisced about his youth, Schneerson said "I have the education of the first-born son of the rabbi of Yekatrinoselav. When it comes to saving lives, I speak up whatever other may say."[29]
Schneerson went on to receive separate rabbinical ordinations from the Rogatchover Gaon, Rabbi Yosef Rosen,[30] and the Sridei Aish, Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg.[31]
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1923–1941[edit]
In 1923 Schneerson for the first time visited the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, where he met the Rabbi's middle daughter Chaya Mushka (Mousia). Sometime later they became engaged, but were not married until 1928 in Warsaw, Poland.[32] Taking great pride in his son-in-law's outstanding knowledge, Yosef Yitzchok asked him to engage in learned conversation with the great Torah scholars that were present at the wedding, such as Rabbi Meir Shapiro and Rabbi Menachem Ziemba.[33] The marriage was long and happy (60 years), but childless.[24]
Menachem Mendel Schneerson and Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn are both descendants of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, known as the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Rebbe of Chabad Lubavitch.[34] Schneerson later commented that the day of his marriage bound the community to him and him to the community.[35]
After his wedding to Chaya Mushka, Schneerson and his wife moved to Berlin where he was assigned specific communal tasks by his father-in-law, who also requested that he write scholarly annotations to the responsa and various hasidic discourses of the earlier Rebbe’s of Chabad-Lubavitch. Schneerson studied mathematics, physics and philosophy at the University of Berlin.[36] He would later recall that he enjoyed Erwin Schrödinger’s lectures.[37] His father-in-law took great pride in his erudite son-in-law's scholarly attainments and paid for all the tuition expenses and helped facilitate his studies throughout.[38]
During his stay in Berlin, his father-in-law encouraged him to become more of a public figure, yet Schneerson described himself as an introvert,[39] and was known to plead with acquaintance not to make a fuss out of the fact that he was the son-in-law of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson.[40]
