("the Lubavicher Rebbe"; 1902-1994). Head of the ḥabad ḥasidic dynasty. A descendant of the first Menahem Mendel of the Ḥabad dynasty (the Tsemaḥ Tsedek), son-in-law and nephew of Dov Baer, who was in turn the son of Ḥabad founder Shneur Zalman of Lyady, Schneersohn was born in Nikolaev in the Ukraine. At the age of seven he moved with his family to Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk). Recognized as a prodigy, he was corresponding with noted Torah scholars while still in his teens. In 1923 he became associated with Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, great-grandson of the Tsemaḥ Tsedek and the current Lubavicher Rebbe. In 1928 he married Joseph Isaac's daughter. Subsequently he studied philosophy and mathematics at the University of Berlin, continuing his studies at the Sorbonne and also attending a Paris engineering college. In 1941, after moving from Paris to Vichy and then Nice in flight from the Nazis, he was able to join his father-in-law in the United States. During the War he served as an electrical engineer in the U. S. Navy. After Joseph Isaac's death in 1950, Schneersohn succeeded his as the Lubavicher Rebbe.
Under Schneersohn's leadership and inspiration, Ḥabad became an outreaching worldwide movement with an estimated following of 200,000 Jews. Sending out thousands of emissaries to establish Ḥabad centers in often remote communities, opening yeshivot, day schools, libraries, and mikvehs, gaining a foothold on campuses, filling the streets with "Mitzvah Tanks" to bring Jews back to the fold, and using radio, television, and the Internet to spread the message of Ḥabad, Schneersohn became the best-known religious leader in the Jewish world.
Schneersohn's principle means of teaching was the fahrbrengen--- Ḥasidic gatherings, duly transmitted by cable and satellite hookups, at which he spoke for hours at a time. These talks were edited and published in the 39 volumes of his Likkutei Sichot, comprising just part of the 300,000 transcribed pages of his talks, essays, and letters. Another means of reaching the public was through private audiences held three times a week through the night, with hundreds of people coming to see him at each session. So great was the demand that the audiences had to be discontinued in 1975 after 25 years of existence. Individual contact was thereafter maintained through correspondence and in addition the Rebbe instituted a Sunday receiving line at his Crown Heights headquarters. Thousands would receive his blessing and sometimes a word of advice, each being handed a dollar bill for donation to charity as his personal agent.
The mystique and charisma of the Rebbe also inspired messianic yearnings among his followers. The identification of Schneersohn with the Messiah made itself felt both before and after his death. Despite the controversy it aroused and the lack of a successor to the childless Rebbe, the movement has continued to flourish.
