•

The Rebbe's Legacy

11

e was the founder of the cha-
sidic movement. Pious, charis-
matic and the stuff of legends,
the Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Yisrael ben
Eliezer) brought the beauty of Judaism to
the common man, the ignorant and the
lowly.

Orphaned at an early age, he lived
ROBERT A.
sparingly
and in obscurity, studying and
SKLAR
Editor
meditating, until he set out at age 36
through Europe's Carpathian Mountains
to heal the sick and perform miracles. The rabbi once told a
disciple: "The lowliest person you can think of is dearer to me
than your son is to you."

He and his followers — scholars, rabbis and simple folk
alike — founded Chasidism in 1-740 in the Ukraine. The
movement urged devotion to God and dedicated prayer. The
Baal Shem Tov (literally, "master of the good name," or mira-
cle worker) taught that God favored joyful and spirited wor-
ship over mere scholarship and knowledge of Jewish law.
His populist teachings spread quickly through eastern
European Jewry.

In contrast, the ancestors of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe,
the beloved Menachem Mendel Schneerson, were chasidic rab-
bis who stressed talmudic learning over ecstatic mysticism.
They called their movement, a form of Chasidism, Chabad.
The Schneerson family settled in the White Russia town of
Lubavitch in the 1800s. They moved the by-then worldwide
movement to New York City in 1940 following a Russian
order closing the yeshivot. The seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, a
sixth-generation descendent of patriarch Shneour Zalman
(1748-1812), became Chabad's leader in 1950. He died in
1994; no successor was named.

Staff Writer Shelli Liebman Dorfman, under Story
Development Editor Keri Guten Cohen's direction, tells the
enlightening story of Chabad's worldwide emissary families in
today's cover package. It begins on page 6.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, were he still alive, would be proud
of how the pursuit of stronger identity, wider knowledge and
greater giving — from a Jewish perspective — continues to
shape Jews everywhere, no matter how observant they are.

Shabbat Shalom!

A Michigan Press Association
Newspaper of the Year

This Week

18 Winning Every Day

Detroit Maccabi teens
win on and off the field.

DSTROIT
JEWISZ NEWS

•TN

www.detroitjewishnews.com

August 18, 2000

Av 17, 5760

Vol. CXVIII, No. 1

DEPARTMENTS

35 Opportunity Found

Bosnian-Muslim student's
chutzpa earns American education.

Editorials

37 Sustaining The Excitement

Thoughtful follow-up key
for Teen Mission travelers.

Community
41 All `Shuk' Up

Cultural marketplace

draws families to JCC.

Spirituality
60 Sweet Sounds

Author translates the
"ohs" and "ahs" of Torah.

AppleTree

67 How Ducky Can You Get?

A Hadassah fundraiser
aids children with cancer.

its
tertainment

76 Revvin' Up

Jewish metro Detroiters

talk about their dream cars.

Living Well

95 Alzheimer's Hope

As disease nears epidemic,

researchers begin finding answers.

100 Skating Genes

Ice or in-line hockey is
• a Shencopp family pastime.

Aleibet'eha
5
Anniversaries .... 59
AppleTree ..... . . 67
real Mitzvah .... 55
Births •.....• • ..54
Business ........ 107
Calendar •••••••• 51
Carla Schwartz .. 104
Community ....... 41
Crossword ....... 75
Answer ......... 113
Cyber Spot ....... 83
Danny Raskin .... 90
Editorials ....... 37
Engagements ..... 56
For Openers ....... 5
Health .......... 95
Insight .......... 35
Marketplace ..... 109
Maze' Toy! ...... 54
Obituaries
136
Out & About .....
Spirituality ...... 60
Sports ..... 100
Staff Notebook . • .. 20
The Scene ... I ... 98
Torah Portion . • . • 66
Weddings ..... • • . 58

Candlelighting

Friday, Aug. 18, 8:12 p.m.

Shabbat ends

Saturday, Aug. 19, 9:14 p.m.

Cover:
Rabbi Menachem Mendel
Schneerson's photo, courtesy
of Chabad-Lubavitch

Cover design, Debbie Schultz

©COPYRIGHT 2000
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

The Detroit Jewish News (USPS
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ments in January, March, May,
August, November and
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Road, Southfield, Michigan.
Periodical Postage Paid at South-
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changes to: Detroit Jewish News,
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tiN

8/18
2000

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