Shmarya Rosenberg (born Scott Rosenberg in 1958) is a former blogger who published the blog FailedMessiah.com.

Biography

Rosenberg grew up in a

Conservative Jewish Conservative Judaism, known as Masorti Judaism outside North America, is a Jewish religious movement which regards the authority of ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions as coming primarily from its people and community through the generat ...

non-observant family in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...

, where his parents operated a beauty supply company. According to his family's history, his great-great-grandfather was a former chasid of Rabbi

Menachem Mendel Schneersohn Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (September 9, 1789 – March 17, 1866) also known as the Tzemach Tzedek (Hebrew: "Righteous Sprout" or "Righteous Scion") was an Orthodox rebbe, leading 19th-century posek, and the third rebbe (spiritual leader) of th ...

, the third Chabad rebbe. Rosenberg was active in Jewish student politics at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

and served several years as an executive of the North American

World Union of Jewish Students The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS ) (Hebrew: ההתאחדות העולמית של הסטודנטים היהודים; French: L’Union Mondiale des Etudiants Juifs; Spanish: Unión Mundial de Estudiantes Judíos; Russian: Всемирный ...

. He became a

baal teshuva In Judaism, a ''ba'al teshuvah'' ( he, בעל תשובה; for a woman, , or ; plural, , , 'master of return God]') is a Jew who adopts some form of traditional religious observance after having previously followed a Jewish secularism, secular lif ...

and joined the

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic group ...

movement as an ultra-orthodox

Hasidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

Jew dedicated to study, community and rigorous observance, abandoning his former ambitions, one of which was to become a songwriter. He was an observant Hasidic Jew for the next 20 years. Rosenberg became disenchanted with the Chabad movement in 2004 after discovering an unsigned and unsent letter addressed to him by Rabbi

Menachem Mendel Schneerson Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Modern Hebrew: מנחם מענדל שניאורסון; old-fashioned spelling: מנחם מענדל שניאורסאהן; April 5, 1902 OS – June 12, 1994; AM 11 Nissan 5662 – 3 Tammuz 5754), known to man ...

responding to his request for Chabad aid in the effort to rescue the Jews of Ethiopia. This resulted in the creation of his blog, ''FailedMessiah.com''.

FailedMessiah blog

Rosenberg's writing career began with his personal blog, ''FailedMessiah'', referring to the belief among Lubavitcher Hassidim that their late rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, is the

messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...

. ''FailedMessiah'' served as a news outlet with the motto ''Covering Orthodox Judaism since 2004''. Rosenberg reports as a journalistic

watchdog Watchdog or watch dog may refer to: Animals *Guard dog, a dog that barks to alert its owners of an intruder's presence * Portuguese Watch Dog, Cão de Castro Laboreiro, a dog breed * Moscow Watchdog, a breed of dog that was bred in the Soviet U ...

and

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

in “a combination of

muckraking The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...

reporting and personal grudge into a must-read digest of the actual and alleged misdeeds of the ultra-Orthodox world. He has broken news about sexual misconduct, smear campaigns and dubious business practices conducted by or on behalf of stringently religious Jews.” Chabad-Lubavitch leaders claim that he has exaggerated the degree of messianism in the movement and that he is driven to settle scores. Rosenberg sold Failed Messiah in February 2016 to a group known as Diversified Holdings.

References

External links

Failed Messiah
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenberg, Shmarya 1958 births Living people 20th-century American Jews Baalei teshuva Blogs about Jews and Judaism Disengagement from religion Jewish bloggers Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota Chabad-Lubavitch related controversies 21st-century American Jews

Biography

FailedMessiah blog

See also

References

External links