Menachem Mendel Schneerson

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, with an international network of over 5,000 educational and social centers. The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care homes for disabled people, and synagogues.

Schneerson's published teachings fill more than 400 volumes, and he is noted for his contributions to Jewish continuity and religious thought, as well as his wide-ranging contributions to traditional Torah scholarship. He is recognized as the pioneer of Jewish outreach. During his lifetime, many of his adherents believed that he was the Messiah, though not all Chabadniks subscribe to this belief. His own attitude to the subject, and whether he proclaimed it, is hotly debated among academics and scholars of Judaism. During Schneerson's lifetime, the messianic controversy and other issues elicited fierce criticism from many quarters in the Orthodox world, from Israel's Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to 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. It has been since commemorated as Education and Sharing Day. 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". Schneerson's resting place attracts Jews for prayer.

Biography

Early life and education

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born on April 5, 1902 (OS) (11 Nisan, 5662), in the Black Sea port of Nikolaev in the Russian Empire (now Mykolaiv in Ukraine). His father was rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, a renowned Talmudic scholar and authority on Kabbalah and Jewish law. His mother was Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (née Yanovski). He was named after the third Chabad rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the Tzemach Tzedek, from whom he was a direct patrilineal descendant.

In 1907, when Schneerson was five years old, the family moved to Yekaterinoslav, where Levi Yitzchak was appointed Chief Rabbi of the city. He served until 1939, when he was exiled by the Soviets - who were anti-religion - for five years to Kazakhstan for his activities on behalf of strengthening Judaism in the Soviet Union. Schneerson had two younger brothers: Dov Ber Schneerson, who was murdered in 1944 by Nazi collaborators, and Yisroel Aryeh Leib Schneerson, who died in 1952 while completing doctoral studies at Liverpool University.

During his youth, he received a private education and was tutored by Zalman Vilenkin from 1909 through 1913. When Schneerson was 11 years old, Vilenkin informed his father that he had nothing more to teach his son. At that point, Levi Yitzchak began teaching his son Talmud and rabbinic literature, as well as Kabbalah. Schneerson proved gifted in both Talmudic and Kabbalistic study and also took exams as an external student of the local Soviet school. He was considered an illui and genius, and by the time he was 17, he had mastered the entire Talmud, some 5,422 pages, as well as all its early commentaries.

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. Levi Yitzchak's courage and principles guided 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 Yekaterinoslav. When it comes to saving lives, I speak up whatever others may say."

Schneerson went on to receive separate rabbinical ordinations from the Rogatchover Gaon, Joseph Rosen, and Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, author of Sridei Aish.

Marriage and family life

In 1923, Schneerson visited the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, for the first time. He met the rabbi's middle daughter Chaya Mushka, who was a distant cousin. Sometime later, they became engaged but were not married until 1928 in Warsaw, Poland. Taking great pride in his son-in-law's outstanding scholarship, Yosef Yitzchak asked him to engage in learned conversation with the great Torah scholars present at the wedding, such as Meir Shapiro and Menachem Ziemba. Menachem Mendel and Chaya Mushka were married for 60 years and were childless.

Menachem Mendel and Yosef Yitzchak were both descendants of Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, known as the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Rebbe of Chabad. Schneerson later commented that the day of his marriage bound the community to him and him to the community.

In 1947, Schneerson traveled to Paris to take his mother, Chana Schneerson, back to New York City with him. Schneerson would visit her every day and twice each Friday to also prepare her tea. In 1964, Chana Schneerson died.

On February 10, 1988, Schneerson's wife Chaya Mushka died. After the traditional year of Jewish mourning had passed on her Yahrzheit, the widowed Schneerson moved into his study above the central Lubavitch synagogue on Eastern Parkway.

Berlin

After his wedding to Chaya Mushka in 1928, Schneerson and his wife moved to Berlin in the Weimar Republic (now part of Germany), where he was assigned specific communal tasks by his father-in-law, who also requested that he write scholarly annotations to the responsa (also known as teshuvot) and various Hasidic discourses of the earlier Rebbes of Chabad-Lubavitch. Schneerson studied higher mathematics, physics, and philosophy at the University of Berlin, and reportedly in his philosophy class he scored the highest grade in the history of the university. He would later recall that he enjoyed Erwin Schrödinger's lectures. His father-in-law facilitated his secular studies, including paying his tuition expenses. His engineering education subsequently helped facilitate his immigration to the United States, as immigration authorities were advised to identify his as a engineer.

During his stay in Berlin, his father-in-law encouraged him to become more of a public figure. However, Schneerson described himself as an introvert and was known to have pleaded with acquaintances not to make a fuss over the fact that he was the son-in-law of Yosef Yitzchak.

While in Berlin, Schneerson met Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and the two formed a friendship that remained between them years later when they emigrated to America. He wrote hundreds of pages of his own original Torah discourses, and conducted a serious interchange of halachic correspondence with many of Eastern Europe's leading rabbinic figures, including Joseph Rosen. In 1933, he also met with Chaim Elazar Spira, as well as with Talmudist Shimon Shkop. During this time, he kept a diary in which he would carefully document his private conversations with his father-in-law, as well as his kabbalistic correspondence with his father, Levi Yitzchak.

Paris

In 1933, after the Nazis took over Germany, the Schneersons left Berlin and moved to Paris, where Menachem Mendel (known as "RaMash" before accepting the leadership of Chabad) continued his religious and communal activities on behalf of his father-in-law.

While in Paris, he took a two-year course in mechanical and electrical engineering at a vocational college. After this, he studied mathematics at the prestigious Sorbonne University.

During that time, Yosef Yitzchak recommended that Professor Alexander Vasilyevitch Barchenko consult with Schneerson regarding various religious and mystical matters, and prominent rabbis, such as Yerachmiel Binyaminson and Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, turned to Schneerson with their rabbinic and kabbalistic queries.

On June 11, 1940, three days before Paris fell to the Nazis, the Schneersons fled to Vichy and later to Nice, where they stayed until their final escape from Europe in 1941.

New York

In 1941, Schneerson escaped from Europe via Lisbon, Portugal. On the eve of his departure, Schneerson penned a treatise where he revealed his vision for the future of world Jewry and humanity. He and his wife, Chaya Mushka, arrived in New York on June 23, 1941.

Shortly after his arrival, his father-in-law appointed him director and chairman of the three Chabad central organizations, Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, Machneh Israel and Kehot Publication Society, placing him at the helm of the movement's Jewish educational, social services, and publishing networks. Over the next decade, Yosef Yitzchak referred many of the scholarly questions that had been inquired of him to his son-in-law. He became increasingly known as a personal representative of Yosef Yitzchak.

During the 1940s, Schneerson became a naturalized US citizen and, seeking to contribute to the war effort, he volunteered at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, using his electrical engineering background to draw wiring diagrams for the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), and was tasked with a highly responsible job of supervising and verifying the complex electrical work on military ships, among other classified military work.

In 1942, Schneerson launched the Merkos Shlichus program, where he would send pairs of yeshiva students to remote locations across the country during their summer vacations to teach Jews in isolated communities about their heritage and offer education to their children.

As chairman and editor-in-chief of Kehot, Schneerson published the works of the earlier Rebbes of Chabad. He also published his own works, including the Hayom Yom in 1943 and Hagadda in 1946.

On a visit to Paris in 1947, Schneerson established a school for girls and worked with local organizations to assist with housing for refugees and displaced persons. He often explained that his goal was to "make the world a better place" and to do what he could to eliminate all suffering. In a letter to Israeli President Yitzchak Ben Tzvi, Schneerson wrote that when he was a child the vision of the future redemption began to take form in his imagination "a redemption of such magnitude and grandeur through which the purpose of the suffering, the harsh decrees and annihilation of exile will be understood ..."

In 1991, a car in convoy with Schneerson's motorcade accidentally struck two Guyanese American children while running a red light. One of the children was killed. The incident triggered the Crown Heights riot.

Seventh Chabad Rebbe

After the death of Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn in 1950, Chabad followers began persuading Schneerson to succeed his father-in-law as Rebbe, citing his scholarship, piety, and dynasty. Schneerson was reluctant, and refused to accept leadership of the movement. He continued, however, with all the communal activities he had previously headed. It would take a full year for the elders to persuade him to join the movement in accepting the post.

On the first anniversary (yahrzeit) of his father-in-law's passing, 10 Shevat 5711 (January 17, 1951), Schneerson took on the role at a ceremony attended by several hundred rabbis and Jewish leaders from all parts of the United States and Canada. He delivered a Hasidic discourse (Ma'amar), the equivalent to a President-elect taking the oath of office, and formally became the Rebbe. In the ma’amar, known as "Bosi L'gani" (I have come into My garden), the Rebbe stated his mission: to bring the Messiah ("Moshiach"). On the night of his acceptance, members of the Israeli Cabinet and the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, sent him congratulatory messages.

Reiterating a longstanding core Chabad principle at his inaugural talk, he demanded that each individual exert themselves in advancing spiritually and not rely on the Rebbe to do it for them, saying:

Now listen, Jews. Generally, in Chabad, it has been demanded that each work on themselves, and not rely on the Rebbes. One must, on their own, transform the folly of materialism and the passion of the 'animal soul' to holiness. I do not, God Forbid, recuse myself from assisting as much as possible, however; if one does not work on themselves, what good will submitting notes, singing songs, and saying lechayim do?

At the same talk, Schneerson said, "one must go to a place where nothing is known of Godliness, nothing is known of Judaism, nothing is even known of the Hebrew alphabet, and while there to put oneself aside and ensure that the other calls out to God." When he spoke to The Forward journalist Asher Penn that year, he said, "...we must stop insisting that Judaism is in danger, an assertion that does little but place Jewry on the defensive. We need to go on the offensive."

As Rebbe, Schneerson would receive visitors for private meetings, known as yechidus, on Sunday and Thursday evenings. Those meetings would begin at 8 pm and often continue until 5 or 6 in the morning, and were open to everyone. Schneerson, who spoke several languages including English, Yiddish, Hebrew, Aramaic, French, Russian, German, and Italian, would converse with people on all issues and offer his advice on both spiritual and mundane matters. Politicians and leaders from across the globe came to meet him, but Schneerson showed no preference for one person over another. His secretary once even declined to admit John F. Kennedy because Schneerson was already meeting people who had requested appointments months previously. Those meetings were discontinued in 1982, when it became impossible to accommodate many people. Meetings were then held only for those with a special occasion, such as a bride and groom for a wedding or a boy and his family for a bar mitzvah.

During his four decades as Rebbe, Schneerson would deliver regular addresses centered on the weekly Torah portion and on various tractates of the Talmud. These talks, delivered without text or notes, would last for several hours, and sometimes went for eight or nine hours without a break. During the talks, Schneerson demonstrated a unique approach to explaining seemingly different concepts by analyzing the fundamental principle common to the entire tractate. and referenced both classic and esoteric sources from all periods, citing entire sections by heart.

Outreach, spiritual campaigns

Women and girls

In 1951, Schneerson established a Chabad women's and girl's organization and a youth organization in Israel. Their mission was to engage in outreach exclusively directed at women and teens. In 1953, he opened branches of these organizations in New York, London, and Toronto. Schneerson equally addressed his teachings to both genders in a marked departure from an entrenched tendency to limit high-level Torah education to men and boys. He addressed meetings of the organizations and led gatherings exclusively for women. Schneerson would describe the increase in Torah study by women as one of the "positive innovations of the later generations".

International outreach

That same year, Schneerson sent his first emissary to Morocco and established schools and a synagogue for the Moroccan Jewish community. In 1958, Schneerson established schools and synagogues in Detroit, Michigan; Milan, Italy; and London. Beginning in the 1960s, Schneerson instituted a system of "mitzvah campaigns" to encourage Jews in the observance of ten basic Jewish practices, such as tefillin for men, Shabbat candles for women, and loving your fellow. Schneerson's campaign brought the concept of tefillin to Jewish men everywhere, and he has been referred to as "the great modern popularizer of tefillin". Until his campaign, tefillin was largely the domain of the meticulously observant.

Following the death of his mother, Chana Schneerson, in 1964, Schneerson began to offer an additional weekly sermon in her memory. These sermons consisted of original insights and unprecedented analysis of Rashi's Torah commentary, delivered at regular public gatherings. Schneerson delivered these sermons weekly until 1992.

Hanukkah campaign

In 1973, Schneerson started a Hanukkah campaign to encourage all Jews worldwide to light their own menorah. After all-tin menorahs were given out that year, a military manufacturer was commissioned to distribute tens of thousands of additional menorahs. In 1974, a public lighting of a Hanukkah menorah was held at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in the years that followed, menorah lightings on public grounds were held in cities worldwide. Legal challenges to the lighting on public grounds reached the Supreme Court of the United States, and it was ruled that public lighting did not violate the Constitution of the United States. Public lightings continue in thousands of cities today.

Lag BaOmer parade

Chabad established an annual Lag BaOmer parade at '770', one of the largest celebrations of its kind, where thousands of Jews celebrate the holiday.

Iran youth immigration

In 1979, during the Iranian Revolution and Iranian hostage crisis, Schneerson directed arrangements to rescue Jewish youth and teenagers from Iran and bring them to safety in the United States. Schneerson saw the Iranian government's hostility towards the United States as behavior that could threaten the country's status as an "untouchable" superpower, and that would cause it to try to appease Arab countries, thus "endanger[ing] the security of Israel". As a result of Schneerson's efforts, several thousand Iranian Jewish children were flown from Iran to the safety of New York.

Noahidism and Jewish outreach

In 1983, Schneerson launched a global campaign to promote awareness of Monotheism and observance of the Noahide Laws among all people, arguing that this was the basis for human rights for all civilization, and stressing that they shouldn't be fulfilled because human logic compels one to do so, but rather because they are God's commands transmitted through Moses. Several times each year his addresses were broadcast on national television. On these occasions, Schneerson would address the public on general communal affairs.

In 1984, Schneerson initiated a campaign for the daily study of Maimonides's Mishneh Torah. Each year after the learning cycle there is Siyum celebration marking the end of the cycle and beginning of the new one. Many Jewish leaders have attended these events.

Sunday office hours for charity

In 1986, Schneerson began a custom where, each Sunday, he would stand outside his office, greet people briefly, give them a dollar bill, and encourage them to donate it to the charity of their choice. Explaining his reason for encouraging charitable giving among all people, Schneerson quoted his father-in-law, who said that "when two people meet, it should bring benefit to a third." People in line would often take this opportunity to ask Schneerson for advice or request a blessing. Thousands of people attended this event each week, which lasted up to six hours, and is often referred to as "Sunday Dollars".

Schneerson's wife, Chaya Mushka Schneerson, died in 1988. During the week of shiva, Schneerson wrote a will in which he bequeathed his entire estate to Agudas Chasidei Chabad, the Chabad umbrella organization.

During a talk in 1991, Schneerson spoke passionately about Moshiach (the Messiah) and told his followers that he had done all that he could bring world peace and redemption but that it was now up to them to continue this task: "I have done my part, from now on you do all that you can." A few months later, when a reporter from CNN came to meet him at a Sunday Dollars, he said, "Moshiach is ready to come now; it is only on our part to do something additional in the realm of goodness and kindness."

His message: become righteous

On Sunday, March 1, 1992, Gabriel Erem, the editor of Lifestyles Magazine, told Schneerson that on his ninetieth birthday, they would be publishing a special issue and wanted to know his message to the world. Schneerson replied that "'Ninety', in Hebrew, is tzaddik; which means 'righteous.' And that is a direct indication for every person to become a real tzaddik—a righteous person, and to do so for many years, until 120. This message applies equally to Jews and non-Jews".

Work habits

During his decades of leadership, Schneerson worked over 18 hours a day and never took a day of vacation. He rarely left Brooklyn except for visits to his father-in-law's gravesite in Queens, New York. Schneerson opposed retirement, seeing it as a waste of precious years. In 1972, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, instead of announcing a retirement plan, Schneerson proposed the establishment of 71 new institutions to mark the beginning of the 71st year of his life. The only other time he left Brooklyn was when he visited Camp Gan Israel Parksville, New York in 1956, 1957 and 1960.

Illness and death

In 1977, during the hakafot ceremony on Shemini Atzeret, Schneerson suffered a heart attack. At his request, rather than transporting him to a hospital, the doctors set up a mini-hospital at his office where he was treated for the next four weeks by doctors Bernard Lown, Ira Weiss, and Larry Resnick. He made a full recovery from the heart attack with few, if any, noticeable lasting effects or changes to his work habits. Fifteen years later, Schneerson suffered a serious stroke while praying at the grave of his father-in-law. The stroke left him unable to speak and paralyzed on the right side of his body. The hope that Schneerson could be revealed as the Messiah became more widespread during this time.

On the morning of June 12, 1994, Schneerson died at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York city, and was buried at the Ohel next to his father-in-law, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, at Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, New York. Shortly after Schneerson's death, the executors of his will discovered several notebooks in a drawer in his office, in which Schneerson had written his scholarly thoughts and religious musings from his earliest years. The majority of entries in these journals date between 1928 and 1950 and were subsequently published.

Following age-old Jewish tradition that the grave of a tzadik is holy, Schneerson's gravesite is viewed by many as a sacred site. It has been described by Yedioth Ahronoth as "the American Western Wall", where thousands of Jews go to pray each week. Many more send faxes and e-mails with requests for prayers to be read at the gravesite.

Many famous people have visited the Ohel of the Rebbe, notable among them are Argentina's president Javier Milei, Ben Shapiro, Eric Adams, Robert F. Kennedy, Lamar Odom, Naomi Campbell Kirsten Gillibrand, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and president Donald Trump.

Wills

Schneerson died without naming a successor as leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty, causing controversy within Chabad about Schneerson's will. He did, however, write one legal will, which was signed before witnesses, whereby he transferred stewardship of all the major Chabad institutions as well as all his possessions to Agudas Chasidei Chabad.

Another will, no executed copies of which are known to be in existence, named three senior Chabad rabbis as directors of Agudas Chasidei Chabad.

Messianism

Schneerson was passionate about raising awareness of the coming of the Messiah. Many of his admirers hoped he would be revealed as the Messiah during his life and many still believe he is alive. They pointed to traditional Jewish theology, which teaches that in every generation there is one person who is worthy of being the Messiah, and if God deems the time right, he will be revealed. Schneerson's supporters have claimed that many Jews felt that if there was indeed a person worthy of such stature, it was Schneerson.

Although Schneerson never explicitly said that he was the Messiah, he did hint to it in his talks, and throughout the years 1993-1994 he encouraged the singing of Yechi (which ascribes the status of Messiah to Schneerson) at almost every opportunity in which he appeared before the public, and according to Schneerson's longtime secretary, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Groner, Schneerson approved of the use of the title "Melech Hamoshiach" ("King Messiah") in connection with his name, this notion of Schneerson being Messiah, however, sparked controversy, particularly among those unfamiliar with these traditional teachings. Detractors criticized a children's song with the words "We want moshiach (the messiah) now / We don't want to wait", that Schneerson commended.