Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Menachem Mendel Schneerson (April 18, 1902 [<a href="/facts/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates/kb3020Wy">O.S.</a> April 5, 1902] – June 12, 1994; <a href="/facts/Anno_Mundi/2NKt5vrz">AM</a> <a href="/facts/11_Nissan/T4Bn4V3x">11 Nissan</a> 5662 – <a href="/facts/3_Tammuz/GPE2v8U9">3 Tammuz</a> 5754), known to adherents of the <a href="/facts/Chabad-Lubavitch/gK9obwFs">Chabad-Lubavitch</a> movement as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply the Rebbe, was an American Orthodox <a href="/facts/Rabbi/vuBf5LYj">rabbi</a> and the most recent <a href="/facts/Rebbe/rp8dC4n5">Rebbe</a> of the <a href="/facts/Chabad/gK9obwFs">Lubavitch</a> <a href="/facts/List_of_Hasidic_dynasties_and_groups/81qvhoKm">Hasidic dynasty</a>. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.
As leader of the <a href="/facts/Chabad-Lubavitch/gK9obwFs">Chabad-Lubavitch</a> movement, he took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the <a href="/facts/Holocaust/vGQsAb2y">Holocaust</a> and transformed it into one of the most influential movements in religious Jewry, with an international network of over 5,000 educational and social centers. The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled, and synagogues.
Schneerson's published teachings fill more than 400 volumes, and he is noted for his contributions to Jewish continuity and religious thought, as well as his wide-ranging contributions to traditional <a href="/facts/Torah/BdJr9IFo">Torah</a> scholarship. He is recognized as the pioneer of <a href="/facts/Jewish_outreach/J6q28jkn">Jewish outreach</a>. During his lifetime, <a href="/facts/Chabad_messianism/Bc1rJXpl">many of his adherents</a> believed that he was the <a href="/facts/Messiah_in_Judaism/BH7VnEQe">Messiah</a>. His own attitude to the subject, and whether he openly encouraged this, is hotly debated among academics. During Schneerson's lifetime, the messianic controversy and other issues elicited fierce criticism from many quarters in the Orthodox world, especially earning him the enmity of Rabbi <a href="/facts/Elazar_Shach/GqlNRqDG">Elazar Shach</a>.
In 1978, the <a href="/facts/U.S._Congress/mJlU46K7">U.S. Congress</a> asked President <a href="/facts/Jimmy_Carter/Rr4UyAVX">Jimmy Carter</a> to designate Schneerson's birthday as the national <a href="/facts/Education_and_Sharing_Day/3LlDHcPo">Education Day in the U.S.</a> It has been since commemorated as Education and Sharing Day. In 1994, Schneerson was posthumously awarded the <a href="/facts/Congressional_Gold_Medal/At3EBoYz">Congressional Gold Medal</a> for his "outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity". <a href="/facts/Ohel_(Chabad-Lubavitch)/REug6roe">Schneerson's resting place</a> attracts Jews for prayer.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson open-in-new

Menachem Mendel Schneerson