Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Yiddish: מנחם מענדל שניאורסאהן; Modern Hebrew: מנחם מנדל שניאורסון; April 5, 1902 OS – June 12, 1994; AM 11 Nissan 5662 – 3 Tammuz 5754), known to adherents of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply the Rebbe,[2][3] was an Orthodox rabbi and the most recent Rebbe of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.[4][5]
For the 19th century, third Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch dynasty, see Menachem Mendel Schneersohn.
Menachem M. Schneerson
Lubavitcher Rebbe
April 5, 1902 OS (11 Nisan 5662)[1]
- Russian Empire
- United States
- Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (father)
- Chana Yanovski Schneerson (mother)
770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York City
10 Shevat 5711 / January 17, 1951
Queens, New York City, U.S.
Brooklyn, New York City
As leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the Holocaust and transformed it into one of the most influential movements in religious Jewry,[6] with an international network of over 5,000 educational and social centers.[7][8][9] The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled, and synagogues.[10]
Schneerson's published teachings fill more than 400 volumes, and he is noted for his contributions to Jewish continuity and religious thought,[11] as well as his wide-ranging contributions to traditional Torah scholarship.[12] He is recognized as the pioneer of Jewish outreach.[13][14] During his lifetime, many of his adherents believed that he was the Messiah. His own attitude to the subject, and whether he openly encouraged this, is hotly debated among academics. During Schneerson's lifetime, the messianic controversy and other issues elicited fierce criticism from many quarters in the Orthodox world, especially earning him the enmity of Rabbi Elazar Shach.
In 1978, the U.S. Congress asked President Jimmy Carter to designate Schneerson's birthday as the national Education Day in the U.S.[15] It has been since commemorated as Education and Sharing Day.[16][17] In 1994, Schneerson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his "outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity".[18] Schneerson's resting place attracts both Jews and non-Jews for prayer.[19][20][10][21]
Legacy[edit]
Impact[edit]
Schneerson initiated Jewish outreach in the post-Holocaust era. He believed that world Jewry was seeking to learn more about its heritage, and sought to bring Judaism to Jews wherever they were.[13] British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said of Schneerson "that if the Nazis searched out every Jew in hate, the Rebbe wished to search out every Jew in love".[172] He oversaw the building of schools, community centers, and youth camps and created a global network of emissaries, known as shluchim.
Today there are shluchim in all of the 50 US states, in over 100 countries and 1,000 cities around the world, totaling more than 3,600 institutions including some 300 in Israel.[173][174] Chabad is very often the only Jewish presence in a given town or city and it has become the face of Jewish Orthodoxy for the Jewish and general world.[175]
Schneerson's model of Jewish outreach has been imitated by all Jewish movements including the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Haredi.[8][176] His published works fill more than 200 volumes and are often used as source text for sermons of both Chabad and non-Chabad rabbis.[12] Beyond the Jewish world, Peggy Noonan has written that moral issues would be better addressed by leaders such as Schneerson than by politicians,[177] and since his death, Schneerson has been referred to as the Rebbe for all people.[10]
Recognition[edit]
Schneerson's work was recognized by every US president from Richard Nixon to Joe Biden.[178][179][180][181][182][183][184] In 1978, Schneerson became the first rabbi to have a U.S. national day proclaimed in his honor, when the U.S. Congress and President Jimmy Carter designated Schneerson's birthdate as "Education Day USA". Each year since, the President has called on all Americans to focus on education in honor of Schneerson. In 1982, Ronald Reagan proclaimed Schneerson's birthday as a "National Day of Reflection" and presented the "National Scroll of Honor" that was signed by the President, Vice-President and every member of Congress.[185][186]
Many officials attended Schneerson's funeral, including New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Benjamin Netanyahu and the entire staff of the Israeli consulate in Washington.[187]
President Bill Clinton penned a condolence letter "to the Chabad-Lubavitch community and to world Jewry" and spoke of Schneerson as "a monumental man who as much as any other individual, was responsible over the last half a century for advancing the instruction of ethics and morality to our young people". Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin cited Schneerson's great scholarship and contribution to the entire Jewish people and proclaimed, "The Rebbe's loss is a loss for all the Jewish people." Foreign Minister Shimon Peres cited words from the prophet Malachi as applying with particular force to Schneerson: "He brought back many from iniquity. For a priest's lips shall guard knowledge, and teaching should be sought from his mouth. For he is a messenger of the Lord."[188]
Shortly after his death, Schneerson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, honoring Schneerson for his "outstanding and enduring contributions toward world education, morality, and acts of charity".[18] President Bill Clinton spoke these words at the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony:
In 2009, the National Museum of American Jewish History selected Schneerson as one of eighteen American Jews to be included in their "Only in America" Hall of Fame.[190]
Schneerson's contribution with respect to comprehension of human emotion is considered by many to be unparalleled; as Elie Wiesel said of the Rebbe, "When the Rebbe was alone with anyone, it was an opening. He opened doors for his visitor, or his student or Chasid—secret doors that we all have. It wasn’t a break-in. It was just an invitation. And that was really the greatness of the Rebbe. I think the Rebbe had a great talent for that—one of the greatest and the best that Judaism has ever seen."[191] Schneerson is often considered to be one of the most, if not the most, influential rabbis of the twentieth century.
Criticism[edit]
From the 1970s onwards, Elazar Shach of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak was publicly critical of Schneerson,[192] accusing him of creating a cult of crypto-messianism around himself.[193][194] He objected to his calling upon the Messiah to appear and eventually called for a boycott of Chabad and its institutions.[195] Though Schneerson never responded publicly to Shach's attacks, he did rebuke those who disparaged (religious and non-religious) Jews and for bringing division among them in apparent response to Shach, explaining that "every Jew, regardless of differences and levels of observances, is part of Am Echad", the unified Jewish people.[196]