Yosef Yitzchak (Joseph Isaac) Schneersohn ( yi, יוסף יצחק שניאורסאהן; 21 June 1880 – 28 January 1950) was an
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
and the sixth
Rebbe
A Rebbe ( yi, רבי, translit=rebe) or Admor ( he, אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spiritua ...
(spiritual leader) of the
Chabad Lubavitch
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 groups ...
Chasidic
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 ...
movement. He is also known as the Frierdiker Rebbe (
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
for "Previous Rebbe"), the ''Rebbe RaYYaTz'', or the ''Rebbe Rayatz'' (an acronym for Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak). After many years of fighting to keep
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
alive from within the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, he was forced to leave; he continued to conduct the struggle from
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
, and then
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, and eventually the United States, where he spent the last ten years of his life.
Early life
Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn was born in
Lyubavichi,
Mogilev Governorate
The Mogilev Governorate () or Government of Mogilev was a governorate () of the Russian Empire in the territory of the present day Belarus. Its capital was in Mogilev, referred to as Mogilev-on-the-Dnieper, or Mogilev Gubernskiy.
The area of the ...
,
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
(present-day
Smolensk Oblast
Smolensk Oblast (russian: Смоле́нская о́бласть, ''Smolenskaya oblast''; informal name — ''Smolenschina'' (russian: Смоле́нщина)) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative centre is the city of ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
), the only son of
Sholom Dovber Schneersohn
Sholom Dovber Schneersohn ( he, שלום דובער שניאורסאהן) was the fifth Rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Chabad Lubavitch chasidic movement. He is known as "the Rebbe Rashab" (for Reb Sholom Ber). His teachings represent the emerge ...
(the ''Rebbe Rashab''), the fifth
Rebbe
A Rebbe ( yi, רבי, translit=rebe) or Admor ( he, אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spiritua ...
of
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 ...
. He was appointed as his father's personal secretary at the age of 15; in that year, he represented his father in the conference of communal leaders in
Kovno
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
. The following year (1896), he participated in the
Vilna
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...
Conference, where rabbis and community leaders discussed issues such as: genuine Jewish education; permission for Jewish children not to attend public school on
Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
; and the creation of a united Jewish organization for the purpose of strengthening Judaism. He participated in this conference again in 1908.
[The Four Worlds, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, Kehot, 2006, pp. 87–90. ]
On 13
Elul
Elul ( he, אֱלוּל, Standard ''ʾElūl'', Tiberian ''ʾĔlūl'') is the twelfth month of the Jewish civil year and the sixth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a month of 29 days. Elul usually occurs in August ...
5657 (1897), at the age of 17, he married his third cousin, Nechama Dina Schneersohn, daughter of Rabbi Avraham Schneerson of
Chișinău
Chișinău ( , , ), also known as Kishinev (russian: Кишинёв, r=Kishinjóv ), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Republic of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial center, and is located in the ...
, son of Rabbi Yisroel Noach of
Nizhyn
Nizhyn ( uk, Ні́жин, Nizhyn, ) is a city located in Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine along the Oster River. The city is located north-east of the national capital Kyiv. Nizhyn serves as the administrative center of Nizhyn Raion. It ...
, son 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 Tzemach Tzedek.
In 1898, he was appointed head of the
Tomchei Temimim
Tomchei Tmimim ( he, תומכי תמימים, "supporters of the complete-wholesome ones") is the central Yeshiva (Talmudical academy) of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Founded in 1897 in the town of Lubavitch by Rabbi Sholom Do ...
yeshiva network.
In 1901, with financial support from Yaakov and Eliezer Poliakoff he opened spinning and weaving mills in
Dubrovno
Dubrowna ( Belarusian Дуброўна ''Dubroŭna''; pl, Dąbrowna) or Dubrovno (russian: Дубро́вно) is a small town on the Dnieper River. The toponym originates from a Proto-Slavic term for an oak forest, which may explain the inclusio ...
and
Mahilyow
Mogilev (russian: Могилёв, Mogilyov, ; yi, מאָלעוו, Molev, ) or Mahilyow ( be, Магілёў, Mahilioŭ, ) is a city in eastern Belarus, on the Dnieper River, about from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from the bor ...
and established a
yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...
in
Bukhara
Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...
.
[''Encyclopedia of Hasidism, entry: Schneersohn, Joseph Isaac''. Naftali Lowenthal. Aronson, London 1996. ]
As he matured, he campaigned for the rights of Jews by appearing before the
Czar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the t ...
ist authorities in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
and Moscow. During the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
of 1904 he sought relief for Jewish conscripts in the
Russian army
The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...
by sending them
kosher
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
food and supplies in the
Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...
.
In 1905, he participated in organizing a fund to provide
Passover
Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt, Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar, He ...
needs for troops in the Far East.
With rising
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
and
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
s against Jews, in 1906 he travelled with other prominent rabbis to seek help from
Western European
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
governments, especially
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, and persuaded bankers there to use their influence to stop pogroms.
He was arrested four times between 1902 and 1911 by the
Czarist
Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states th ...
police because of his activism, but was released each time.
Upon the death of his father, Rabbi
Sholom Dovber Schneersohn
Sholom Dovber Schneersohn ( he, שלום דובער שניאורסאהן) was the fifth Rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Chabad Lubavitch chasidic movement. He is known as "the Rebbe Rashab" (for Reb Sholom Ber). His teachings represent the emerge ...
(''"Rashab"''), in 1920, Schneerson became the sixth Rebbe of
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 ...
.
Battling the Bolsheviks
Following the takeover of Russia by the Communists they created a special "Jewish affairs section" run by Jews, known as the ''
Yevsektsiya
A Yevsektsiya ( rus, евсекция, p=jɪfˈsʲektsɨjə; yi, יעווסעקציע) was a Jewish section of the Soviet Communist Party. These sections were established in fall of 1918 with consent of Vladimir Lenin to carry communist revoluti ...
'', which instigated anti-religious activities meant to strip Orthodox Jews of their religious way of life. As rebbe of a Russia-based Jewish movement, Schneersohn was vehemently outspoken against the
state atheism
State atheism is the incorporation of positive atheism or non-theism into political regimes. It may also refer to large-scale secularization attempts by governments. It is a form of religion-state relationship that is usually ideologically li ...
of the Communist regime and its goal of forcibly eradicating religion throughout the land. He purposely directed his followers to set up religious schools, going against the dictates of the
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
-
Leninist
Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishme ...
"
dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat holds state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist economy, whereby the ...
".
In 1921, he established a branch of Tomchei Temimim in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
.
In 1924, he was forced by the
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...
(Russian secret police) to leave
Rostov
Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:
While t ...
due to the Yevsektsiya's slander, and settled in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
.
In this time he labored to strengthen Torah observance through activities involving rabbis, Torah schools for children, yeshivot,
shochtim, senior Torah-instructors and the opening of
mikva'ot
Tractate Miqwaʾoth (Hebrew: מקואות, lit. "Pools of Water"; in Talmudic Hebrew: ''Miqwaʾoth'') is a section of the Mishna discussing the laws pertaining to the building and maintenance of a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath. Like most of Seder T ...
; he established a special committee to help manual workers be able to observe
Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
. He established
Agudas Chasidei Chabad
Agudas Chassidei Chabad is the umbrella organization for the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The chairman of the executive committee is Rabbi Abraham Shemtov.
History
Agudas Chasidei Chabad was established by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rab ...
in USA and Canada.
In 1927, he established a number of yeshivot in Bukhara.
He was primarily responsible for the maintenance of the now-clandestine Chabad yeshiva system, which had ten branches throughout Russia by this time. He was under continual surveillance by agents of the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
.
Imprisonment and release
In 1927, he was arrested and imprisoned in the
Bolshoy Dom
Bolshoy Dom (russian: Большой дом, lit. ''the Big House'') is an office building located at 4 Liteyny Avenue in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the headquarters of the local Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast branches of the Federa ...
in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. He was accused of
counter-revolutionary
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...
activities, and sentenced to death.
A worldwide storm of outrage and pressure from Western governments and the
International Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
forced the communist regime to commute the death sentence and instead on
3 Tammuz it banished him to
Kostroma
Kostroma ( rus, Кострома́, p=kəstrɐˈma) is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian cities, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Volga and Kostroma. Popu ...
for an original sentence of three years.
Yekaterina Peshkova
Yekaterina Pavlovna Peshkova, née Volzhina (russian: Екатерина Павловна Пешкова, née Волжина; 26 July 1887 – 26 March 1965) was a Soviet human rights activist and humanitarian, first wife of Maxim Gorky.
Li ...
, a prominent Russian human rights activist, helped from inside as well. This was also commuted following political pressure from the outside, and he was finally allowed to leave Russia for
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
in Latvia, where he lived from 1928 until 1929.
Yosef Yitzchak's release from Soviet imprisonment is celebrated each year by the Chabad community.
[Schneerson, Menachem M]
"Yud-Beis Tammuz 5738."
''Sichos in English: 5738. Volume 1.'' Vaad Lehafotzas Sichos (Sichos in English). 1978. sichosinenglish.org. Accessed 28 April 2014.
After his release, Yosef Yitzchak went to the
Holy Land
The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...
where he saw holy gravesites, local yeshivas and Torah centers, and met with rabbis and community leaders from 7–22 August 1929, leaving just prior to the massacre by Arabs of nearly 70 Jews living in
Hebron
Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...
on 24 August.
1929: First visit to the United States
Following his trip to the Holy Land, he turned his attention to the United States, arriving in Manhattan on 17 September 1929 (12
Elul
Elul ( he, אֱלוּל, Standard ''ʾElūl'', Tiberian ''ʾĔlūl'') is the twelfth month of the Jewish civil year and the sixth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a month of 29 days. Elul usually occurs in August ...
5689) on the French passenger liner France. Schneersohn was greeted by some 600 people, with security provided by over 100 New York City police officers. "May the Almighty bless this great country that has been a refuge for our Jewish people," he said at his arrival.
[''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'']
18 September 1929, p.18
The purpose of his visit was to assess the educational and religious state of American Jewry, and raise awareness of the plight of Soviet Jews.
Hailed as "one of the greatest Jews of our age," he was honored at a 28 October banquet in Manhattan by Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jewish leaders.
While in the United States, Schneersohn also traveled (among places other than New York) to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, and
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. On 10 July, he met President
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
at the White House. As the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
presidential candidate, Hoover had lobbied for his release.
Lubavitch followers in America begged their Rebbe to leave Russia and stay in America, but Schneersohn declined, saying that America was an
irreligious
Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and ant ...
place where even rabbis
shaved off their beards. He left the United States to return to
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
,
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
, on 17 July 1930.
From 1934 until the early part of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he lived in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, Poland.
1940: Settling in the United States
Following
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
's attack against Poland in 1939, Schneersohn refused to leave Warsaw. The government of the United States of America, which was still neutral, used its diplomatic relations to convince Nazi Germany to rescue Schneersohn from the war zone in German-occupied Poland.
[Rigg, Bryan Mark, ''Rescued from the Reich: How One of Hitler's Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe'' (Yale University Press 2006)] He remained in the city during the bombardments and its capitulation to Nazi Germany. He gave the full support of his organizations to assist as many Jews as possible to flee the invading armies. With the intercession of the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
in Washington, DC and with the lobbying of many Jewish leaders, such as
Jacob Rutstein
Jacob Rutstein (1877–1946) was an American businessman, philanthropist, real estate developer and lumber magnate who became known for his innovations to the Lumber Nominal Measurements or Nominal Size by the invention of the 11/4 wooden panel, c ...
, on behalf of the Rebbe (and, reputedly, also with the help of Admiral
Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Franz Canaris (1 January 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a German admiral and the chief of the '' Abwehr'' (the German military-intelligence service) from 1935 to 1944. Canaris was initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi r ...
, the head of the
Abwehr
The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...
), he was finally granted diplomatic immunity and given safe passage to go via Berlin to
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
, Latvia (where the Rebbe was a citizen and which was still free) and then on to New York City, where he arrived on 19 March 1940. Major Ernst Bloch, a decorated German army officer of Jewish descent, was put in command of a group which included Sgt. Klaus Schenk, a
half-Jew
The term Halbjude (English: Half-Jew) is a derogatory term for people with a non-Jewish and a Jewish parent. The overwhelming majority of the so-called half-Jews were legally classified as " first-degree Jewish hybrids" during the era of Nazi Germ ...
and Pvt. Johannes Hamburger, a quarter-Jew assigned to locate the Rebbe in Poland and escort him safely to freedom.
They were a few of up to 150,000 Jews and people of Jewish descent who were classified as
Mischlinge
(; " mix-ling"; plural: ) was a pejorative legal term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons of mixed " Aryan" and non-Aryan, such as Jewish, ancestry as codified in the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935. In German, the word has the general denot ...
("mixed-breeds", i.e., Germans with one or two Jewish grandparents) by the Nazi government, but served in the German armed forces during World War II. They wound up saving not only the Rebbe, but also over a dozen Hasidic Jews in the Rebbe's family or associated with him.
Working with the government and the contacts Schneersohn had with the US State Department, Chabad was able to save his son-in-law (and future successor) Menachem Mendel Schneerson from Vichy France in 1941 before the borders were closed down.
When Schneersohn came to America (he was the first major Chasidic leader to move permanently to the United States) two of his chassidim came to him, and said not to start up all the activities in which Lubavitch had engaged in Europe, because "America is different." To avoid disappointment, they advised him not even to try. Schneersohn wrote, "Out of my eyes came boiling tears", and undeterred, the next day he started the first Lubavitcher Yeshiva in America, declaring that "America is no different." In 1949, Schneersohn became a U.S. citizen.
Following Schneerson's escape from Nazi occupied Poland and his settlement in New York City, he issued a call for repentance, stating ''L'alter l'tshuva, l'alter l'geula'' ("speedy repentance brings a speedy redemption"). This campaign was opposed by rabbis
Avraham Kalmanowitz
Avraham Kalmanowitz (also Abraham; he, אברהם קלמנוביץ; March 8, 1887 – 15 February 1964) was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Mir yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York from 1946 to 1964. Born in Belarus, he served as rabbi ...
and
Aaron Kotler
Aharon Kotler (1892–1962) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania and the United States; the latter being where he founded Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township, New Jersey.
Early life
Kotler ...
of the ''
Vaad Hatzalah
Vaad Hatzalah (the Rescue Committee or Committee for Rescuing) was an organization to rescue Jews in Europe from the Holocaust, which was founded in November 1939 by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada (''Agudath Harabba ...
''. In return, Schneersohn was critical of the efforts of rabbis Kalmanowitz and Kotler based on the suspicion that Kalmanowitz and Kotler were discriminating in their use of funds, placing their yeshivas before all else, and that the
Mizrachi and
Agudas Harabonim withdrew their support of the Vaad after they discovered this fact.
Launch of Lubavitch activities in the United States
During the last decade of Rabbi Schneersohn's life, from 1940 to 1950, he settled in the
Crown Heights section of
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
in New York City. Rabbi Schneersohn was already physically weak and ill from his suffering at the hands of the Communists and the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
and from multiple health issues including multiple sclerosis, but he had a strong vision of rebuilding
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
in America, and he wanted his movement to spearhead it. In order to do so, he went on a building campaign to establish religious
Jewish day school
A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide children of Jewish parents with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full-time basis. The term "day school" is used to differentiate s ...
s and
yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...
s for boys and girls, women and men. He established printing houses for the voluminous writings and publications of his movement, and started the process of spreading Jewish observance to the Jewish masses worldwide.
He began to teach publicly, and many came to seek out his teachings. He began gathering and sending out a small number of his newly trained rabbis to other cities - a trend later emulated and amplified by his son-in-law and successor, 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 ...
.
In 1948, he established a Lubavitch village in the
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...
known as
Kfar Chabad
Kfar Chabad ( he, כְּפַר חַבָּ"ד, ''lit.'' "Chabad Village") is a Chabad-Lubavitch village in central Israel. Between Beit Dagan and Lod, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sdot Dan Regional Council. In it had a population of .
His ...
near
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
, on the site of the de-populated
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
village of
Al-Safiriyya
Al-Safiriyya was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during Operation Hametz in the 1948 Palestine War on May 20, 1948. It was located 11 km east of Jaffa, 1.5 km west of Ben Gurion Airport.
Star ...
.
He died in 1950, and was buried at Montefiore Cemetery in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, New York City. He had no sons, and his younger son-in-law, 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 ...
("The Rebbe") succeeded him as Lubavitcher Rebbe, while the older son-in-law, Rabbi
Shemaryahu Gurary continued to run the Chabad Yeshiva network
Tomchei Temimim
Tomchei Tmimim ( he, תומכי תמימים, "supporters of the complete-wholesome ones") is the central Yeshiva (Talmudical academy) of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Founded in 1897 in the town of Lubavitch by Rabbi Sholom Do ...
.
After Rabbi Schneersohn's passing, his gravesite, known as "the ''
Ohel''", became a central point of focus for his successor Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who would visit it regularly for many hours of prayer, meditation, and supplication for Jews all over the world.
After his successor's passing and burial next to his father-in-law, philanthropist
Joseph Gutnick
Joseph Isaac "Diamond Joe" Gutnick (born June 1952; he, יוסף יצחק הכהן גוטניק) is an Australian businessman, mining industry entrepreneur and the former president of the Melbourne Football Club(1996-2001). He is also an ordain ...
of Melbourne, Australia, established the Ohel Chabad-Lubavitch Center on Francis Lewis Boulevard in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, which is located adjacent to the joint grave site.
Book collection
During his life in
Smolensk
Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest c ...
, Rabbi Schneersohn set up a collection of his family's religious books and writings. It includes texts dating back to the 16th century. After World War I, the Bolsheviks found part of the collection and moved it to the
Russian State Library
The Russian State Library (russian: Российская государственная библиотека, Rossiyskaya gosudarstvennaya biblioteka) is one of the three national libraries of Russia, located in Moscow. It is the largest librar ...
. Another part of the collection was confiscated by Soviet troops in Nazi Germany during World War II and moved to Russia's military archive. In 1994, seven books were loaned to the
U.S. Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library i ...
for 60 days through an inter-library exchange program.
The books were given to the
Chabad-Lubavitch library which helped to prolong the use of the books twice, in 1995 and 1996, before they finally refused to return them to Russia in 2000. They proposed an exchange for the opportunity to keep the books indefinitely, but Russia refused. In 2004, the Chabad-Lubavitch filed a lawsuit against Russia, claiming the remaining books. In 2010, an American court granted their claim, which Russia ignored as invalid. In retaliation, in 2011 Russia put a ban on lending works to American museums. In 2014, United States federal judge, Senior United States District Judge Royce C. Lamberth imposed fines of $50,000 a day for Russia refusing to return the Schneersohn collection of more than 12,000 books and 50,000 religious papers. Since Rabbi Schneersohn had no heirs, Russia claims the collection is a national treasure of the Russian people. This dispute is related to the deteriorating ties between Moscow and the U.S. over the ongoing 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine. A Russian court ruled that the Library of Congress should pay fines of $50,000 a day for refusing to return the books.
Published works
Hebrew and Yiddish
*Sefer Hamaamarim – 5680–5689, 8 vol.
*Sefer Hamaamarim – 5692–5693.
*Sefer Hamaamarim – 5696–5711, 15 vol.
*Sefer Hamaamarim – Kuntresim, 3 vol.
*Sefer Hamaamarim – Yiddish
*Sefer Hasichot – 5680–5691, 2 vol.
*Sefer Hasichot – 5696–5710, 8 vol.
*Likkutei Dibburim, 4 vol.
*Kuntres Torat Hachasidut
*Kuntres Limud Hachasidut
*Admur Hatzemach Tzedek U'Tenuat Hahaskalah
*Kitzurim L'Biurei Hazohar
*Sefer Hakitzurim – Shaarei Orah
*Kitzurim L'Kuntres Hatefillah
*Sefer Hazichronot, 2 vol.
*Moreh Shiur B'Limudei Yom Yom – Chumash, Tehillim, Tanya
*Seder Haselichot
*Maamar V'Ha'ish Moshe Anav, 5698
*Igrot Kodesh, 14 vol.
*Klalei Chinuch veHaDracha
Hebrew translations
*Likkutei Dibburim, 5 vol.
*Sefer Hasichot – 5700–5705, 3 vol.
*Sefer Hazichronot, 2 vol.
English translations
*Lubavitcher Rabbi's Memoirs
*The Tzemach Tzedek and the Haskala Movement
*On Learning Chasidut
*On the Teachings of Chasidut
*Some Aspects of Chabad Chasidism
*Chasidic Discourses, 2 vol.
*Likkutei Dibburim, 6 vol.
*The Principles of Education and Guidance
*The Heroic Struggle
*The Four Worlds
*Oneness in Creation
CD/video
*''America Is No Different''
In film
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak's escape from Poland was the subject of a 2011 Israeli documentary film ''Ha'rabi Ve'hakatzin Ha'germani'' (''The Chabad Rebbe and the German Officer'').
The Chabad Rebbe and the German Officer. JMTFilms.com. Accessed 16 January 2014.
/ref>
See also
* 770 Eastern Parkway
References
External links
Biography
Who Was Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson?
by Henry Abramson, Dr. Henry Abramson
Life, Liberty & Lubavitch: The Philadelphia Visit of the Rebbe Rayatz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schneersohn, Yosef Yizchak
Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn,
1880 births
1950 deaths
American Hasidic rabbis
Hasidic rabbis in Europe
Kabbalists
People from Orshansky Uyezd
People from Rudnyansky District, Smolensk Oblast
Philosophers of Judaism
Prisoners sentenced to death by the Soviet Union
Rebbes of Lubavitch
Russian Hasidic rabbis
Russian prisoners sentenced to death
Schneersohn family
Soviet emigrants to the United States
Soviet expellees
Soviet rabbis