Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born on 11 Nisan 5662 (18 April 1902) in Nikolayev, in the south of the Russian Empire, to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson — one of the foremost kabbalists of his generation — and Rebbetzin Chana. His home combined deep scholarship with inner spiritual work, and already as a child he stood out for an exceptional memory and an unusual capacity for independent study; much of his knowledge he acquired on his own, from books he obtained in unconventional ways. In 1929 he married Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, daughter of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe. He then left Russia and studied mathematics and philosophy at the university in Berlin and later in Paris, alongside his studies at the rabbinical seminary. The outbreak of the Second World War cut short that chapter, and in 1941 he and his wife reached the United States after a difficult journey. In those years he worked in engineering and writing, and began assisting his father-in-law in directing the affairs of the movement. In 1950, after his father-in-law's passing, he assumed leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch. Under his direction a comparatively small Hasidic movement became a worldwide network: he dispatched thousands of emissaries to distant places, encouraged the founding of Chabad houses, kindergartens, schools and mikva'ot, and instructed them to act out of responsibility for every Jew, wherever they were and whatever their affiliation. His educational enterprises included the Tzivos Hashem movement for children, the "mitzvah campaigns" — ten areas in which he called for strengthening practical observance, among them tefillin, Shabbat candles, mezuzah, kashrut and family purity — and the "Otiyot" campaign, in which a Torah scroll was written by the children of Israel. He conducted an enormous correspondence later published in the volumes of Igrot Kodesh, and received thousands of people privately, offering counsel, encouragement and remarkable openness. In his later years he spoke extensively about redemption and the Messiah, calling for increased Torah study and kindness as preparation; among parts of his following an intense anticipation of redemption developed, a subject that remains debated in the wider public. In Adar 1992 he suffered a stroke that impaired his speech, yet he continued to receive visitors and to respond in writing. He passed away on 3 Tammuz 5754 (12 June 1994), aged 92, and was buried at the Chabad Ohel in Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, New York, beside his father-in-law. His gravesite has become a place of pilgrimage for Jews from around the world. His legacy lives above all in the global network of emissaries he built, in an extensive body of Torah literature — talks, discourses, letters and handwritten notes — and in his emphasis on love of one's fellow Jew, on joy in serving God, and on the idea that every Jew, everywhere and in every situation, carries a mission with them.

He left behind a global movement, an immense body of Torah literature and a message of mutual responsibility: every Jew carries a mission wherever they are, and even a small act of mitzvah and kindness tips the scale. Many of his emissaries continue his path, and from the movement's centre in Crown Heights educational and communal work continues to spread worldwide.