Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (April 21, 1878 – August 9, 1944) was a

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 ...

-Lubavitch

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 ...

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 ...

in Yekatrinoslav,

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. He was the father of the seventh Chabad-Lubavitch

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 ...

, 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 ...

Early life

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was born on the 18th day of Nissan, 5638 (1878) in the town of Podrovnah (near

Gomel Gomel (russian: Гомель, ) or Homiel ( be, Гомель, ) is the administrative centre of Gomel Region and the second-largest city in Belarus with 526,872 inhabitants (2015 census). Etymology There are at least six narratives of the ori ...

) to Rabbi Baruch Schneur and Zelda Rachel Schneerson (nee Chaikin). His great-great-grandfather was the third Chabad Rebbe, 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 ...

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 ...

. In 1900, Levi Yitzchak married Chana Yanovsky, whose father, Rabbi , was the Rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Nikolaiev. In 1902, their eldest son, Menachem Mendel was born. He was later to become the

Chief rabbi of Yekatrinoslav and Soviet persecution

Schneerson lived in Nikolaiev until 1909, when he was appointed to serve as the Rabbi of

Yekaterinoslav Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

. In 1939 he was arrested by the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

regime for his fearless stance against the Party's efforts to eradicate Jewish learning and practice in 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 ...

, and particularly for distributing

Matzah Matzah or matzo ( he, מַצָּה, translit=maṣṣā'','' pl. matzot or Ashk. matzos) is an unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which ''chametz'' (leaven and f ...

to the Jews of Dnepropetrovsk (formerly Yekaterinoslav). After more than a year of torture and interrogations in

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's prisons, he was sentenced to exile to a remote village Chiali in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. Shortly before he died, Levi Yitzchak was able to move to

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

, where he was warmly welcomed by the small Lubavitcher community.

Death

On August 9, 1944 he died in

. Schneerson was buried at a cemetery in Almaty. A Chabad Lubavitch synagogue named in his honor has been built near his gravesite. On August 10, 2020, his burial space was declared a Kazakh National Heritage site in cooperation with the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.

Legacy

Schneerson was a distinguished Kabbalist. Some of his writings, written on the margins of the scarce books available to him in exile, have been published in a five volume set under the name ''Likkutei Levi Yitschok''. Most of it, however, was burned or confiscated by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

authorities, and has yet to be returned to the Chabad movement. After the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1991, the KGB admitted that Schneerson was framed. In December 1999 the then President of Kazakhstan

Nursultan Nazarbayev Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev ( kk, Нұрсұлтан Әбішұлы Назарбаев, Nūrsūltan Äbişūlı Nazarbaev, ; born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician and military officer who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in off ...

gave the complete KGB files on Schneerson to a group of Chabad Chassidim in New York City, and are now housed in the

Library of Agudas Chassidei Chabad The Library Of Agudas Chassidei Chabad (also Chabad Library or Lubavitch library) is a research library owned by Agudas Chasidei Chabad. Its content had been collected by the Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbes. The library is housed next to the Lubavitch wo ...

External links

Family Tree with Rabbi Levi Yitzchak SchneersonRabbi Levi Yitzchak's biography on Chabad-Lubavitch KazakhstanSelect teachings of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson translated into English

References