FILE – Pigeons fly above rabbis gathering for a group photo at the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in New York. The synagogue in New York’s Brooklyn borough is closely tied with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s enduring influence in global Judaism and beyond in the three decades since his death, but it received unwanted attention in January 2024 with a brawl between some worshippers and police, part of a sequence of events that began with the discovery of a secretly dug tunnel. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
The basement synagogue that was the scene of a brawl this week between worshippers and New York City police has a long and storied connection with a Brooklyn rabbi who led a global movement and remains revered three decades since his death.
The fight broke out Monday when authorities moved in to seal off a secret tunnel into the Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue, which some worshippers — described by the movement as “a small group of rogue youth” — said was intended to fulfill the wishes of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Here are some details about Schneerson and his impact within and beyond the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Orthodox Judaism.
WHO WAS SCHNEERSON?
Schneerson led Chabad-Lubavitch from 1951 until his death in 1994. He was the movement’s seventh leader, know as Lubavitcher Rebbe.
He arrived in the United States during World War II after gaining a secular education in Europe, and he quickly set about rebuilding Chabad-Lubavitch and wider Jewish observance following the devastation of the Holocaust.
Schneerson’s voluminous speeches and writings were spread widely and continue to be collated and studied by supporters.
He sought to expand Jewish observance, dispatching emissaries throughout the world, often in places with little to no Jewish presence. And he would encourage people of all faiths to be more observant and to heed universal moral teachings about honoring God and respecting others.
On…
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