87 Facts About Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known to many as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply the Rebbe, was an Orthodox rabbi and the most recent Rebbe of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson is recognized as the pioneer of Jewish outreach.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born on April 5,1902 in the Black Sea port of Nikolaev in the Russian Empire.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson's father was rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, a renowned Talmudic scholar and authority on Kabbalah and Jewish law.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was named after the third Chabad rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the Tzemach Tzedek, from whom he was a direct patrilineal descendant.

In 1907, when Menachem Mendel Schneerson was five years old, the family moved to Yekatrinoslav, where Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was appointed Chief Rabbi of the city.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson served until 1939, when he was exiled by the Soviets to Kazakhstan.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson had two younger brothers: Dov Ber, who was murdered in 1944 by Nazi collaborators, and Yisrael Aryeh Leib, who died in 1952 while completing doctoral studies at Liverpool University.

When Menachem Mendel Schneerson was 11 years old, Vilenkin informed his father that he had nothing more to teach his son.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson proved gifted in both Talmudic and Kabbalistic study and took exams as an external student of the local Soviet school.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was considered an illui and genius, and by the time he was 17, he had mastered the entire Talmud, some 5,894 pages, as well as all its early commentaries.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was said to have acted as an interpreter between the Jewish community and the Russian authorities on a number of occasions.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson went on to receive separate rabbinical ordinations from the Rogatchover Gaon, Yosef Rosen, and Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, author of Sridei Aish.

In 1923, Menachem Mendel Schneerson visited the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, for the first time.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson later commented that the day of his marriage bound the community to him and him to the community.

In 1947 Menachem Mendel Schneerson traveled to Paris, to take his mother, Chana Menachem Mendel Schneerson, back to New York City with him.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson would visit her every day and twice each Friday and prepare her a tea.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson studied mathematics, physics, and philosophy at the University of Berlin.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson's father-in-law took great pride in his erudite son-in-law's scholarly attainments, and paid for all the tuition expenses and helped facilitate his studies throughout.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson wrote hundreds of pages of his own original Torah discourses, and conducted a serious interchange of halachic correspondence with many of Eastern Europe's leading rabbinic figures, including the Talmudic genius known as the Rogachover Gaon.

In 1933, after the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, the Schneersons left Berlin and moved to Paris, where Menachem Mendel continued his religious and communal activities on behalf of his father-in-law, Yosef Yitzchak.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson became increasingly known as a personal representative of Yosef Yitzchak.

In 1942 Menachem Mendel Schneerson launched the Merkos Shlichus program where he would send pairs of yeshiva students to remote locations across the country during their summer vacations to teach Jews in isolated communities about their heritage and offer education to their children.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson published his own works including the Hayom Yom in 1943 and Hagadda in 1946.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson often explained that his goal was to "make the world a better place," and to do what he could to eliminate all suffering.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was reluctant, and actively refused to accept leadership of the movement.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson continued all the communal activities he had previously headed.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who spoke several languages including English, Yiddish, Hebrew, French, Russian, German and Italian, would converse with people on all issues and offer his advice on both spiritual and mundane matters.

Politicians and leaders from across the globe came to meet him, but Menachem Mendel Schneerson showed no preference to one person over another.

In 1951 Menachem Mendel Schneerson established a Chabad women's and girl's organization and a youth organization in Israel.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson addressed meetings of the organizations, and led gatherings exclusively for women.

That same year, Menachem Mendel Schneerson sent his first emissary to Morocco, and established schools and a synagogue for the Moroccan Jewish community.

In 1958 Menachem Mendel Schneerson established schools and synagogs in Detroit, Michigan, in Milan, Italy, and in London, England.

In 1988, Menachem Mendel Schneerson sent 22-year-old Rabbi Shmuley Boteach as a Chabad-Lubavitch shaliach to Oxford, England, where he served as rabbi to Oxford University's students for 11 years.

In 1973, Menachem Mendel Schneerson started a Chanukah campaign to encourage all Jews worldwide to light their own menorah.

In 1979, during the Iranian Revolution and Iranian hostage crisis, Menachem Mendel Schneerson directed arrangements to rescue Jewish youth and teenagers from Iran and bring them to safety in the United States.

In 1983 Menachem Mendel Schneerson launched a global campaign to promote awareness of the Supreme Being and observance of the Noahide Laws among all people, arguing that this was the basis for human rights for all civilization.

In 1984, Menachem Mendel Schneerson initiated a campaign for the daily study of Maimonides's Mishneh Torah.

In 1986, Menachem Mendel Schneerson began a custom where each Sunday he would stand outside his office, greet people briefly, give them a dollar bill and encourage them to donate to the charity of their choice.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson rarely left Brooklyn except for visits to his father-in-law's gravesite in Queens, New York.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was opposed to retirement, seeing it as a waste of precious years.

In 1972, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, instead of announcing a retirement plan, Menachem Mendel Schneerson proposed the establishment of 71 new institutions to mark the beginning of the 71st year of his life.

In 1977, during the hakafot ceremony on Shemini Atzeret, Menachem Mendel Schneerson suffered a heart attack.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson made a full recovery from the heart attack with few if any noticeable lasting effects or changes to his work habits.

Fifteen years later Menachem Mendel Schneerson suffered a serious stroke while praying at the grave of his father-in-law.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson died without naming a successor as leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty, causing controversy within Chabad about Menachem Mendel Schneerson's will.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson did write one legal will, which was signed before witnesses, whereby he transferred stewardship of all the major Chabad institutions as well as all his possessions to Agudas Chassidei Chabad.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson had a passion and desire to raise awareness of the coming of the Messiah.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson's supporters have claimed that many Jews felt that if there was indeed a person worthy of such stature, it was Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Since Menachem Mendel Schneerson's passing, the Messianic movement has largely shrunk, although some followers still believe him to be the Messiah.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson called on the government to develop independent energy, and not need to rely on totalitarian regimes whose countries national interests greatly differed from the US Schneerson called for the US Government to use its influence on countries who were receiving its foreign aid to do more for the educational and cultural needs of their deprived citizens.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson placed a strong emphasis on education and often spoke of the need of a moral educational system for all people.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was an advocate of a Department of Education as a separate cabinet position from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson proclaimed 1977 as a "Year of Education" and urged Congress to do the same.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson took great interest in the affairs of the state of Israel, and did whatever was in his power to support the infrastructure of the state and advance its success.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was concerned with the agricultural, industrial and overall economic welfare of Israel, and sought to promote its scientific achievements, and enhance Israel's standing in the international community.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson consistently expressed enormous recognition of the role of the Israel Defense Forces and stated that those who serve in the Israeli army perform a great mitzvah.

In 1950, Menachem Mendel Schneerson encouraged the establishment of Israel's first automobile company, Autocars Co.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson established a network of trade schools in Israel to provide Israeli youth, new immigrants and Holocaust survivors with vocational training and livelihood.

In 1954, Menachem Mendel Schneerson established a school for carpentry and woodwork.

Israeli President Zalman Shazar would visit Schneerson and corresponded extensively with him as would Prime Minister Menachem Begin who came to visit him before going to Washington to meet President Carter.

Ariel Sharon, who had a close relationship with Menachem Mendel Schneerson, often quoted his views on military matters and sought his advice when he considered retiring from the military.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson publicly expressed his view that the safety and stability of Israel were in the best interests of the United States, calling Israel the front line against those who want the anti-Western nations to succeed.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was opposed to land for peace, which he called an "illusion of peace", saying that it would not save lives, but harm lives.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson stated that this position was not based on nationalistic or other religious reasons, but purely out of concern for human life.

Just before the outbreak of the Six-Day War, Menachem Mendel Schneerson called for a global Tefillin campaign, to see that Jews observe the Mitzvah of wearing Tefillin as a means of ensuring divine protection against Israel's enemies.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson said Israel had no need to fear as God was with them, quoting the verse, "the Guardian of Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers".

However, following the incident, Yitzchok Hutner, a prominent Orthodox rabbi who had corresponded with Schneersohn in the past, wrote to Menachem Mendel Schneerson privately, distancing himself from the convention.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson said: "their portion in the Hereafter is guaranteed".

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was later vilified by ultra-haredi rabbis for publicly praising the courage of the IDF and suggesting that God chose them as a medium through which he would send deliverance to the Jewish people.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson protested vehemently against those elements within the ultra-haredi society who sought to undermine the motivations and actions of the soldiers.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson corresponded with David Ben-Gurion on the issue of Judaism in the State of Israel, asking the Prime Minister to ensure that Israel "remains Jewish".

Menachem Mendel Schneerson greatly encouraged the Jews who lived in Communist states.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson sent many emissaries on covert missions to sustain Judaism under Communist regimes and to provide them with their religious and material needs.

Many Jews from behind the Iron Curtain corresponded with Menachem Mendel Schneerson, sending their letters to him via secret messenger and addressing Menachem Mendel Schneerson in code name.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who had an intimate knowledge of the Soviet government and their tactics, opposed demonstrations on behalf of Soviet Jews, stating that he had evidence that they were harming Russia's Jews.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson did whatever was in his power to push for the release of Jews from the former Soviet Union and established schools, communities and other humanitarian resources to assist with their absorption into Israel.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson believed that world Jewry was seeking to learn more about its heritage, and sought to bring Judaism to Jews wherever they were.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson oversaw the building of schools, community centers, and youth camps and created a global network of emissaries, known as shluchim.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson's published works fill more than 200 volumes and are often used as source text for sermons of both Chabad and non-Chabad rabbis.

Shortly after his death, Menachem Mendel Schneerson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, honoring Menachem Mendel Schneerson for his "outstanding and enduring contributions toward world education, morality, and acts of charity".

We recognize the profound role that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson had in the expansion of those institutions.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson objected to his calling upon the Messiah to appear and eventually called for a boycott of Chabad and its institutions.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson is recognized for his scholarship and contributions to Talmudic, Halachic, Kabalistic and Chasidic teachings.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson's teachings have been published in more than two hundred volumes.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson penned tens of thousands of letters in reply to requests for blessings and advice.