The article marks 32 years since the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and reviews 10 little-known facts about Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the modern era. He was born in 1902 in Nikolayev, then part of the Russian Empire and today in Ukraine, and no one expected the boy to reshape world Jewry.
Before leading Chabad, Schneerson studied in academic institutions in Berlin and Paris and learned mathematics, physics, and electrical engineering, combining Torah scholarship with scientific training. In 1941, during World War II, he escaped Nazi-occupied Europe and reached New York with his wife, Chaya Mushka Schneerson, beginning a new chapter for Chabad. Since taking the movement’s leadership, he almost never left New York and never visited Israel, despite his deep connection to the Land of Israel and its leaders.
Under his leadership, Chabad built the world’s largest network of emissaries and Chabad houses, with thousands of shluchim now active in hundreds of cities and countries, serving millions of Jews. He also launched public mitzvah campaigns, including tefillin, Shabbat candles, charity, mezuzah, and Jewish education, which became a hallmark of Chabad activity. Over the years, he answered countless letters from heads of state, public figures, and ordinary people, and thousands of those responses were later published in books.
The article says he was ahead of his time in embracing communication tools, encouraging use of the telephone, radio, satellites, and later the internet to spread Torah and Judaism. After his death on 3 Tammuz 5754, his gravesite in New York became a major pilgrimage destination, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year. It also notes that some in Chabad’s Messianic wing believe he is the Messiah and that his death did not end the story, a view that remains controversial more than three decades later.
