Chabad: Difference between revisions

The Alter Rebbe was born in 1745 in the city of Liozna. He soon became a student of the Maggid of Mezritch, the successor of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement. Following the histalkus of the Maggid and the departure of Rabbi Meachme Mendel of Vitebsk and other Chassidic leaders to [[Eretz Yisroel]], the Alter Rebbe became the leader of the Chassidim in Russia, later moving to the town of Liadi. The Alter Rebbe developed the teachings of Chabad in the book of [[Tanya]] which emphasised the use of one's intellectual faculties. This distinguished the Chabad movement from other branches of the Chassidic movement (and are often referred to the Rebbes as Chagas, after the emotive faculties). Following the war between Napoleon and Russia, and the histalkus of the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe settled in Lubavitch. His son-in-law and successor, [[the Tzemach Tzedek]] led the Chabad movement for many years. His son, [[the Rebbe Maharash]], continued to lead in Lubavitch. His son, [[the Rebbe Rashab]], founded [[Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim]] and fought to strengthen Chassidus Chabad during a time of mass secularization. At that time, many Chassidim moved away from Russia, and many settled in the United States where they soon created Agudas Chasidei Chabad ("Association of Chabad Hasidim"). His son, [[the Rebbe Rayatz]], fought to preserve Judaism under the rule of the Communists. In 1927, the Rebbe Rayatz was arrested by the Russian Secret Police and was sentenced to death. The sentence was averted and the Rebbe Rayatz left Russia, visiting Latvia, America, Eretz Yisroel, before relocating to Poland. With the start of the Second World War, the Rebbe Rayatz was saved from the hands of the Germans and arrived in America.<ref name=Altein>Altein, R, Zaklikofsky, E, Jacobson, I: ''Out of the Inferno: The Efforts That Led to the Rescue of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch from War Torn Europe in 1939–40''. Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, 2002.</ref> After the histalkus of the Rebbe Rayatz, the Rebbe became the seventh leader of Chabad-Lubavitch.

The Chabad movement was subjected to governmental oppression in Russia. The Russian government, first under the Czar, later under the Bolsheviks, imprisoned all but one of the Chabad rebbes. The Bolsheviks also imprisoned, exiled and executed many Chabad Chassidim. And many were sent to Siberia for years of hard labor. During the Second World War, many Chabad Chassidim evacuated to the Uzbek cities of Samarkand and Tashkent where they established small centers of Chassidic life, while at the same time seeking ways to emigrate from Soviet Russia due to the government's suppression of religious life.<ref>Estraikh, G. (2018). Escape through Poland: Soviet Jewish Emigration in the 1950s. Jewish History, 31(3-4), 291-317.</ref> The reach of Chabad in Central Asia also included earlier efforts that took place in the 1920s.<ref>Levin, Z. (2015). 1 "The Wastelands": The Jews of Central Asia. In Collectivization and Social Engineering: Soviet Administration and the Jews of Uzbekistan, 1917–1939 (pp. 7–26). Brill.</ref> Following the war, and well after the center of the Chabad movement moved to the United States, the movement remained active in Soviet Russia, aiding the local Jews known as Refuseniks who sought to learn more about Judaism.<ref>Beizer, M. (2007). The Jews of struggle: the Jewish national movement in the USSR, 1967–1989.</ref> And throughout the Soviet era, the Chabad movement maintained a secret network across the USSR.<ref>Gitelman, Z. (2007). Do Jewish Schools Make a Difference in the Former Soviet Union?. East European Jewish Affairs, 37(3), 377–398.</ref> Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, state persecution of Chabad ceased, and the Chabad movement openly leads the rebuilding of Judaism in Russia.