Lubavitcher rebbe and rav shach

By submitting the above I agree to the privacy policy and terms of use of JTA. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died early Sunday 7morning at a New York hospital, has been described by many as the foremost Jewish personality of modern times.

Mashiach chabad

Schneerson was the seventh in the dynastic line of leaders of the Lubavitch movement, which was founded in the 18th century by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. The rebbe, as he was known to his followers, was born in on the 11th day of Nisan, in the Ukrainian city of Nikolaev. His mother, Chana, was herself from a prestigious rabbinic family.

His great-grandfather and namesake, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, was the third Lubavitcher rebbe. As a child, he showed prodigious mental acuity and had to leave the cheder, or religious school, because he had overtaken the other students. His father engaged private tutors for him and then taught his son himself. Breaking the mold of Chasidic scholars, Schneerson pursued secular studies at the University of Berlin, and graduate studies in engineering at the Sorbonne in Paris.

In , upon the death of Rabbi Schneer-sohn, Menachem Schneerson became the seventh Lubavitcher rebbe. With his piercing blue eyes and magnetic personality, he easily caught the undivided attention, and devotion, of thousands, perhaps millions, of followers. Lubavitch schools prospered during his long tenure.

Messiah is here

An estimated half-million Jewish children, many of them not Lubavitch, learn in Lubavitch-sponsored schools worldwide. The rebbe continually emphasized the need to reach out to alienated Jews, to bring them back to their roots. He saw to the establishment of special educational facilities for them.