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ew York (JTA) — Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
has been called the foremost
Jewish personality of modern
times.
He was the seventh in the dy-
nastic line of leaders of the
Lubavitch movement, which was
founded in the 18th century by
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.
The rebbe, as he was known to
his followers, was born in 1902
on the 11th day of Nisan in the
Ukrainian city of Nikolaev.
He was the son of a renowned
kabbalist and talmudic scholar,
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneer-
son. His mother, Chana, was
from a prestigious rabbinic fam-
ily. His great-grandfather and-
namesake, Rabbi Menachem
Mendel, was the third Lubavit-
cher rebbe.
When he was 5, Menachem
and his family moved to the
Ukrainian city of Yekaterinaslay.
As a child, he showed prodigious
mental acuity and had to leave
the cheder, or religious school, be-
cause he had overtaken the oth-
er students in his studies and
abilities. His father engaged pri-
vate tutors for him and then
taught his son himself.
By the time Menachem
Schneerson reached his bar
mitzvah, he was already
considered an illui, or Torah
prodigy.
In 1929, he married
Chaya Moussia Schneerson,
the second daughter of the
Lubavitcher rebbe at the
time, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak

The rebbe was a
charismatic leader
committed to
education and
outreach.

SUSAN BIRNBAUM

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Rabbi Schneerson: By 13,
he was a Torah prodigy.

Mourners reach to touch the
casket bearing the remains
of Rabbi Schneerson.

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Schneerson, who was Menachem
Schneerson's distant cousin.
Breaking the mold of Chasidic,
non-worldly scholars, he pursued
secular studies at the University
of Berlin, and graduate studies
in engineering at the Sorbonne
in Paris.
Fleeing the Nazis, Rabbi
Schneerson emigrated and set-
tled in the United States in 1941,
where he worked for the
Brooklyn Navy Yard as an engi-
neer.
He soon became an intrinsic
part of the Lubavitch movement,
serving as head of Merkos
1'Inyonei Chinuch, the move-
ment's educational branch;
Machne Israel, the movement's
social service organization; and
Kehot Publication Society, the
Lubavitch publishing depart-
ment.
In 1950, upon the death of
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneer-
son, Menachem Mendel Schneer-
son became the seventh
Lubavitcher rebbe.
With his magnetic personali-
ty, he easily caught the undivid-
ed attention, and devotion, of
thousands, perhaps millions, of
followers.
Throughout his leadership of
the Lubavitch movement, Rabbi
Schneerson always remained loy-
al to the cause of education. He
often was heard saying: "We dare
not rest until every Jewish child
receives an education."
Lubavitch schools prospered
during his long tenure. An esti-
mated half-million Jewish chil-

dren, many of them not
Lubavitch, learn in Lubavitch-
sponsored schools worldwide.
The rebbe continually empha-
sized the need to reach out to
alienated Jewish youth and
young adults, to bring them back
to their Jewish roots. He saw to
the establishment of special ed-
ucational facilities for them.
From full-time yeshivot for
Jewish men and women with lit-
tle or no background in Torah
study, to literally tens of thou-
sands of classes at Chabad-
Lubavitch centers and
synagogues around the world, the
rebbe was the vital life force be-
hind an outreach process that has
affected the entire spectrum of
Jewish life.
He came up with the idea for
the Lubavitch "mitzvah mobiles,"
or "Jewish tanks to combat as-
similation," as the rebbe referred
to them. They offered the oppor-
tunity to do "mitzvahs on the
spot," such as putting on tefillin
or taking home candles to light
on Shabbat.
The rebbe advocated outreach
to Jewish children deprived of
Jewish education, and to Jews on
school campuses, in isolated com-
munities or under repressive gov-
ernmental regimes.
He oversaw and constantly ex-
panded a far-flung network of
Lubavitch communities where
shlichim, or emissaries, created
Chabad houses to welcome all
Jews, regardless of their back-
ground or level of religious ob-
servance.

The rebbe's words frequently
were broadcast to Lubavitch cen-
ters worldwide by satellite or tele-
phone hookup.
Those living in Brooklyn or vis-
iting would attend his teaching
gatherings, known as fahrbre-
gens.
Every Sunday, at the World
Lubavitch Headquarters at 770
Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn,
huge crowds of men, women and
children would line up and wait
their turn to meet the rebbe and
receive his blessing.
Each person who met with him
would receive a crisp, new dollar
bill to be given to the charity of
choice.
It was not only Lubavitchers
who waited for a chance to meet
with the rebbe. Jewish organiza-
tional leaders, many of them not
religious, would ask his advice
and blessing for given projects.
Even gentile leaders from
around the world sought out his
counsel, waiting willingly to have
even the briefest audience with
the rebbe.
Every day, the rebbe was in-
undated with mail, consisting
largely of letters asking advice
from his followers, many of whom
would not wed, move or take a
new job without first asking.
The rebbe's picture was placed
on the walls of his followers'
homes and offices.
While Rabbi Schneerson's au-
thority throughout the world was
immeasurable, in his more than
40 years of leadership he rarely
left Brooklyn and never visited
Israel.
His only sorties were
his regular trips to the
Old Montefiore Cemetery
to visit the grave of his
predecessor, as well as
that of his wife, who died
in 1988. He would pray at
the graves for hours on
behalf of all Jews.
The rebbe's reach ex-
tended well beyond the
domain of religion. It
stretched from Brooklyn
to Israel, where he exert-
ed immense influence
over local politics.
In keeping with the be-
lief that the rebbe could
be the Messiah and would
make his final place in
Israel, his followers in the
town of Kfar Chabad, just
outside Tel Aviv, built an
exact duplicate of the
Brooklyn headquarters,
an action they say was in
accordance with the
rebbe's wishes. 111

