Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) was born in the port of Nokolaev, in the Russian Empire. He was the son of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Schneerson and Chana Yanovsky. He was a direct descendant of the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, Tzemach Tzedek Schneerson. From childhood, he was distinguished by his extraordinary intelligence and empathy. At the age of eleven, his private tutor, Zalman Vilenkin, announced to his father that he had nothing more to teach him. It was then that his father took his education into his own hands. He taught him rabbinic literature, Kabbalah, and Talmud, which he had mastered completely by the age of 17.

In 1923, he visited the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson, for the first time, and met his daughter, Haya Mushka. They married in Warsaw in 1928 and moved to Berlin, where he entered the University of Berlin to study mathematics, physics, and philosophy. His father-in-law was very proud of his academic achievements and paid for his college education.

In 1933, with the rise of Nazism, they moved to Paris, where he continued his religious and community activities, at his father-in-law’s request, while also studying mechanics and earning a degree in electrical engineering in 1937. He entered the Sorbonne to study mathematics, which he left unfinished, and in 1940 he had to flee to Vichy, then to Nice, before finally leaving Europe and arriving in New York in 1941. A few months earlier, his father-in-law, the Rebbe, had managed to escape from Poland and also reach that city, settling in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, where the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement is still located.

During the war, he obtained American citizenship and volunteered for the Navy, where he helped design electrical circuits for the battleship USS Missouri, among other jobs. By then, the Rebbe had already appointed him director of the three main Chabad organizations, dedicated to education, social service, and publications. In 1942, he initiated the «shlichus» (emissaries) program, which consisted of sending pairs of yeshiva students during their summer vacations to places with isolated Jewish communities, with the aim of teaching Judaism to adults, and especially to children.

In 1950, his father-in-law died, and he was buried in Montefiore Cemetery in Queens. His tomb, known as the «Ohel,» would eventually become a place of pilgrimage for his followers. In 1951, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson became the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. He dedicated his energy and time to many fields. Education was his highest priority. He placed special importance on women learning Torah.

In the 1960s, he instituted his «mitzvot campaign,» where volunteers placed tefillin on Jewish men on the street and gave away candlesticks for Shabbat and Hanukkah, among other things. He was also deeply concerned about everything related to the State of Israel, especially the work of its soldiers. Every week, he gave away dollar bills to those who came to visit him, to teach them the importance of tzedaka. In general, the Rebbe always advocated remaining at the center ideologically and socially, seeking to be the bridge between the secular and the religious. He died in 1994 and was buried next to his father-in-law in the Ohel. He had no children and did not name a successor. But he left behind the Jewish organization with the most extensive presence worldwide.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Material from the Chabad website and other sources.