Schneour Zalman Schneersohn
Encyclopedia
Schneour Zalman Schneersohn (Gomel, Russia, 1898 – Brooklyn
, New York, 1980) was a French Hasidic Chief Rabbi, before moving in his late years to the United States. He was very active in France during World War II, when he took charge of homes for children, to save them from the occupier, while giving them a Jewish education.
(that post will fall to his cousin, Menachem Mendel Schneerson
(1902–1994).
He is the son of Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, grandson of Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn, great grandson of Baruch Shalom Schneersohn (1803 or 1805–1868 or 1869), the oldest son of the
Tzemach Tzedek (the third Rebbe
of the Lubavitch Dynasty, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn
1789–1866). His mother, Liba Leah, was the granddaughter of Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev
(1740–1810), one of the main disciples of Dov Ber of Mezeritch (1704–1772), himself one of the main disciples and successor of the Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760), the founder of Hasidism.
He arrives in France in 1935, and heads in Paris the ‘’’Association des israélites pratiquants’’’ (AIP) (Kehillat Haharedim) en 1936, which was founded in 1910, with the goal to «gather together the Jews having kept their attachment to the forms of religious life, as they became crystallized over many centuries in Central Europe
.» Léon Poliakov
underlines the lack of understanding of the consistorial authorities that he encounters at the time, and their antagonism : «his orthodoxy, of an absolute intransigence, or his working methods, as flexible as they were, were disconcerting, not to mention his manners and his dress which did not appeal to his French colleagues. As far as he was concerned, he gave to the terms "French rabbi" a quite particular resonance.» Thus he needs to work with a select committee, and focus his attention on the teaching of children, opening up eight Talmudé Tora
regularly attended by several hundreds of children, despite the dearth of his available resources.
(Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants
):
The rabbi who arrived in Marseille beginning 1941 remains there for one year with his organization, the AIP. In the middle of a park, in a large house called la Maison de Beaupin, he takes care to put up children abandoned by their parents following their arrests. Moreover, in his apartment located in a very nice district of Marseille, he sets up a workshop for foreigners thus saving them.
In his book on Jewish Résistance in France, Lucien Lazare thus describes the role and the approach of Chief Rabbi Schneersohn :
"Having moved to Vichy
, then to Marseille
, the AIP had gathered together a community of sixty or so persons, composed of a Synagogue
, a welfare office, a Yeshiva
, a home for children and a workshop for vocational placement. Chneerson intended his services to Orthodox Judaism
. Placed in the marginality of the Jewish organizations, the AIP was the expression of a particular category of the Jewish identity. Very popular before the war in Central Europe
and Eastern Europe
as well as in Palestine, Hasidism counted fervent followers within the community of the Jewish immigrants in Paris. Rejecting at once Emancipation
, Zionism
and Socialism, Chneerson only conceived Jewish existence in the jealous observance of rites and put up an impenetrable barrier against the influence of the environment and modernity. His experience of secular persecutions had taught him to respond by establishing a community with unfailing cohesion, devoting itself to the study of sacred texts and the observance of the Mitzvot in the enthusiastic atmosphere of the hassidic tradition. It is in this framework that he himself and his follower felt safe, leaving it to Providence. Chneerson had not discerned the novel and fatal character of the nazi threat, and the AIP was particularly vulnerable to the deportations."
The AIP helps the internees in the camps. Grynberg writes that the AIP has at its disposal a monthly budget of 200 000 francs to give aid to the internees in the camps. This sum comes from for half from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
and for half from private gifts.
The future historian Léon Poliakov
becomes his secretary, in 1943, and founded with the cousin of Chief rabbi Schneersohn, Isaac Schneersohn, the Shoah Memorial, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (Paris, France). Poliakov will tell in 1997 that he got acquainted with of Chief Rabbi Schneersohn when he was looking for a rabbi to officiate at his father's funerals. Later, at Marseille, he meets, on the Canebière
, Chief Rabbi Schneersohn who offers him the position of secretary. Their collaboration lasts several months and Poliakov gives up following ideological differences – he opposes the idea to contact Joseph Goebbels
– and religious differences.
In "L'Auberge des musiciens", Léon Poliakov describes Schneour Zalman Schneersohn ("red beard, limping slightly in his caftan according to the Polish custom") and his activities at Marseille:
"About a hundred or so persons prayed in the oratory of the rue Sylvabelle in a rich-looking building in of the most beautiful neighborhoods at Marseille [...] [There] two large rooms and a hall in the first floor, a kitchen and two rooms in the mezzanine [...]. The rabbi taking refuge with his family on the first floor. The kitchen doesn’t stay empty either: furtive shadows appeared in the evening and vanished in the morning; these are escapees of the internment camps of Vichy to whom the rabbi gives refuge. One of the rooms of the first floor serves as an office and as a function room – a never-ending stream of Jewish miseries -, the other, the office of the rabbi, is at the same time a synagogue and a classroom; there weddings are celebrated and divorces are settled and even financial disputes."
In his private diary, Raymond-Raoul Lambert, who heads the UGIF-Sud writes on 17 August 1943: "The 28 (28 July 1943) I go, with Simone and the children, to visit a home for children close to Voiron, headed by an orthodox rabbin who resembles Rasputin. In such a milieu I feel Christian and Latin
." The Israeli historian Richard Cohen thus explains Lambert's reaction:"It's about rabbi Isaac Chneerson [sic] who was responsible of an ultra-orthodox charitable organization (Association des Israélites pratiquants de France, Kehillath Haharedim), affiliated to the 3e Direction de l'UGIF (Santé). The "assimilated" response by RRL [Raymond-Raoul Lambert] is not surprising, considering the content of the letter by the latter (2 August 1943, YIVO: RG 340, dossier 3) which deals into the details of his fantastic project to establish a Jewish State based on strictly orthodox principles."
In a recent book entitled Les enfants de la Martellière, Delphine Deroo reconstitues the life of this institution. She doesn’t hide her admiration for the work of Chief Rabbi Schneour Zalman Schneersohn:
"To each threat corresponds a defense. To the wish of physical and spiritual elimination of the "Jewish Race", these men and women opposed themselves as Jews, assuming with pride their endangered Jewishness. And this moral resistance, that on my part I encounter in the insistence of rabbi Chneerson [Schneour Zalman Schneersohn] to strictly observe the religious laws – showing for him the very essence of his directly threatened Judaism -, strikes me and dazzles me by its strength and by its heroism."
.
Several personalities later will assert the influence of his teaching, including Olga Katunal, according to whom « Zalman Schneurson » was her greatest teacher, and Henri Atlan
who, at the end of his book Entre le cristal et la fumée (1979) quotes his «Teacher» without naming him.
Schneour Zalman Schneersohn is close to rabbi David Feuerwerker
, whose sons study with him, rue Dieu. Rabbi Feuerwerker is present, with his family, when Schneour Zalman Schneersohn and his wife board the train for Le Havre
, when they leave for United States.
In the 1960s, Schneour Zalman Schneersohn immigrates to the United States, and continues there his task as a teacher, in Brooklyn
, New York. The Yeshiva
that he heads there comprises a training program in computer science
, to give a trade to his students, which places him, at the time, at the avant-garde.
He dies at New York, on 2 July 1980 (18 Tammuz (Hebrew month) 5740).
of Lubavitch Menachem Mendel Schneerson
and his wife Chaya Mushka Schneerson
decide to go settle at Paris in 1933 was the presence there of cousins: Schneour Zalman Schneersohn, Isaac Schneersohn
and Édmée Schneerson. In the 1960s, it would be Schneour Zalman Schneersohn's turn to go settle at New York, where his cousin, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, was the Rebbe of Lubavitch.
Chana Schneerson arrived at Paris. She has not seen her oldest son, Menachem Mendel Schneerson
, the futur seventh and last Rebbe of Lubavitch, since his departure from Leningrad
to go to Riga
where he rejoined his futur father-in-law, rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch. That was 20 years earlier.
Lubavitch hasidim go to welcome Menachem Mendel at the airport, but his flight is delayed by four hours. They decide to wait for him at the residence of rabbi Schneour Zalman Schneersohn, Menachem Mendel's cousin. Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson stays by Schneour Zalman Schneersohn.
A telegram from the Rebbe of Lubavitch, Yosef Yitzchok, intended for his son-in-law Menachem Mendel is received, with the words
in Hebrew: "Boruch atah b'bo'echa" ("Blessed are you in your coming").
Rabbi Schneour Zalman Schneersohn concludes that Menachem Mendel has arrived. Soon after, a taxi drops Menachem Mendel in front of the residence..
A farbrengen
is arranged. Menachem Mendel recalls that Joseph didn’t see his father Jacob
for twenty-two years.
Menachem Mendel remains at Paris during three months, from the month of Adar
until the Festival of Shavuot
. During these three months, he pays a visit to his mother twice daily, in the morning and in the evening.
On the Shabbat
days and on the days of Festivals, he walks from his hotel to be with his mother. They share then their meals.
On the eve of the departure of Menachem Mendel Schneerson and of his mother Chana Schneerson for New York, Schneour Zalman Schneersohn arranges in his house a big farbrengen
..
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York, 1980) was a French Hasidic Chief Rabbi, before moving in his late years to the United States. He was very active in France during World War II, when he took charge of homes for children, to save them from the occupier, while giving them a Jewish education.
From Russia to France
Schneour Zalman Schneersohn was born at Gomel in Russia (currently in Bielorussia) in 1898. He belonged to the hassidic dynasty of Lubavitch, and was at one time approached about taking the job to be the seventh RebbeRebbe
Rebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
(that post will fall to his cousin, Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe among his followers, was a prominent Hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He was fifth in a direct paternal line to the third Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel...
(1902–1994).
He is the son of Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, grandson of Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn, great grandson of Baruch Shalom Schneersohn (1803 or 1805–1868 or 1869), the oldest son of the
Tzemach Tzedek (the third Rebbe
Rebbe
Rebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
of the Lubavitch Dynasty, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn
Menachem Mendel Schneersohn
Menachem Mendel Schneersohn also known as the Tzemach Tzedek was an Orthodox rabbi and the third Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch chasidic movement.-Biography:...
1789–1866). His mother, Liba Leah, was the granddaughter of Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev
Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev
Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev , also known as the Berdichever, was a rabbi and Hasidic leader. He was the rabbi of Ryczywół, Żelechów, Pinsk and Berdychiv, for which he is best known...
(1740–1810), one of the main disciples of Dov Ber of Mezeritch (1704–1772), himself one of the main disciples and successor of the Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760), the founder of Hasidism.
He arrives in France in 1935, and heads in Paris the ‘’’Association des israélites pratiquants’’’ (AIP) (Kehillat Haharedim) en 1936, which was founded in 1910, with the goal to «gather together the Jews having kept their attachment to the forms of religious life, as they became crystallized over many centuries in Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
.» Léon Poliakov
Leon Poliakov
Léon Poliakov was a French historian who wrote extensively on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.Born into a Russian Jewish family, Poliakov lived in Italy and Germany until he settled in France....
underlines the lack of understanding of the consistorial authorities that he encounters at the time, and their antagonism : «his orthodoxy, of an absolute intransigence, or his working methods, as flexible as they were, were disconcerting, not to mention his manners and his dress which did not appeal to his French colleagues. As far as he was concerned, he gave to the terms "French rabbi" a quite particular resonance.» Thus he needs to work with a select committee, and focus his attention on the teaching of children, opening up eight Talmudé Tora
Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of public primary school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew, the Scriptures , and the Talmud...
regularly attended by several hundreds of children, despite the dearth of his available resources.
The Résistance and the homes for children
It's the same concern for children and their education that guides Chief Rabbi Schneersohn during the German occupation. From February 1940 to March 1944, he opens up a series of homes for children, in cooperation with the AIP and the OSEŒuvre de secours aux enfants
Œuvre de secours aux enfants, commonly abbreviated as OSE, is a French Jewish humanitarian organization that saved hundreds of Jewish refugee children in Vichy France during World War II....
(Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants
Œuvre de secours aux enfants
Œuvre de secours aux enfants, commonly abbreviated as OSE, is a French Jewish humanitarian organization that saved hundreds of Jewish refugee children in Vichy France during World War II....
):
- February 1940 – January 1941:
- Château des Morelles, Brout-VernetBroût-VernetBroût-Vernet is a commune in the Allier department in central France.-Population:-References:*...
(AllierAllierAllier is a department in central France named after the river Allier.- History :Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais.In 1940, the government of Marshal...
). - 1941–1942 MarseilleMarseilleMarseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
Chateau Beaupin
- Château des Morelles, Brout-Vernet
The rabbi who arrived in Marseille beginning 1941 remains there for one year with his organization, the AIP. In the middle of a park, in a large house called la Maison de Beaupin, he takes care to put up children abandoned by their parents following their arrests. Moreover, in his apartment located in a very nice district of Marseille, he sets up a workshop for foreigners thus saving them.
- 1941–1942:
- Domaine de Seignebon, at DémuDémuDému is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-Population:-Media:Dému features as a main setting in the Michael Ondaatje novel Divisadero.-References:*...
(GersGersThe Gers is a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River.Inhabitants are called les Gersois or Gersoises.-History:...
).
- Domaine de Seignebon, at Dému
- 1942–1944: successively :
- GrenobleGrenobleGrenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
. - Château du Manoir, hameau de L'Étang-Dauphin, Saint-Étienne-de-CrosseySaint-Étienne-de-CrosseySaint-Étienne-de-Crossey is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.-References:*...
(IsèreIsèreIsère is a department in the Rhône-Alpes region in the east of France named after the river Isère.- History :Isère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Dauphiné...
), Beginning in March 1943. - pension Cavalier and Hôtel Rivoli, at NiceNiceNice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
. 1943 (...-October 1943). - Château du Manoir (return) from October 1943 to December 1943, then dispersal of the children in three hamlets close to VoironVoironVoiron is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.- History :Voiron long formed part of Savoy, but in 1355 was exchanged by the count with France for Faucigny and Gex.Historical population:* 1901: 12,625- Geography :Voiron stands at a height of 950 ft., on the Morge Voiron...
(Isère):- La Manche, hameau de Saint-Jean-de-MoiransSaint-Jean-de-MoiransSaint-Jean-de-Moirans is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.-References:*...
(Isère), in December 1943. - La Martellière, Voiron (Isère), also in December 1943. 16 children, aged 7 to 21, and two adults are arrested there by the miliceMiliceThe Milice française , generally called simply Milice, was a paramilitary force created on January 30, 1943 by the Vichy Regime, with German aid, to help fight the French Resistance. The Milice's formal leader was Prime Minister Pierre Laval, though its chief of operations, and actual leader, was...
during the night of 23 March to March 1944, following a denunciation. The children are deported in the Convoi 71 of 13 April 1944 and the Convoi n° 73 of 15 May 1944.. - hameau de ChirensChirensChirens is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.Above the hamlet of Clermont stands the Tower of Clermont, the only remains of the former castle of the Counts of Clermont-Tonnerre, later Clermont-Tonnerre....
(Isère) and Saint-Étienne-de-Crossey (a room), starting in October 1943.
- La Manche, hameau de Saint-Jean-de-Moirans
- Grenoble
In his book on Jewish Résistance in France, Lucien Lazare thus describes the role and the approach of Chief Rabbi Schneersohn :
"Having moved to Vichy
Vichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
, then to Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, the AIP had gathered together a community of sixty or so persons, composed of a Synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, a welfare office, a Yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
, a home for children and a workshop for vocational placement. Chneerson intended his services to Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
. Placed in the marginality of the Jewish organizations, the AIP was the expression of a particular category of the Jewish identity. Very popular before the war in Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
as well as in Palestine, Hasidism counted fervent followers within the community of the Jewish immigrants in Paris. Rejecting at once Emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
, Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
and Socialism, Chneerson only conceived Jewish existence in the jealous observance of rites and put up an impenetrable barrier against the influence of the environment and modernity. His experience of secular persecutions had taught him to respond by establishing a community with unfailing cohesion, devoting itself to the study of sacred texts and the observance of the Mitzvot in the enthusiastic atmosphere of the hassidic tradition. It is in this framework that he himself and his follower felt safe, leaving it to Providence. Chneerson had not discerned the novel and fatal character of the nazi threat, and the AIP was particularly vulnerable to the deportations."
The AIP helps the internees in the camps. Grynberg writes that the AIP has at its disposal a monthly budget of 200 000 francs to give aid to the internees in the camps. This sum comes from for half from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is a worldwide Jewish relief organization headquartered in New York. It was established in 1914 and is active in more than 70 countries....
and for half from private gifts.
The future historian Léon Poliakov
Leon Poliakov
Léon Poliakov was a French historian who wrote extensively on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.Born into a Russian Jewish family, Poliakov lived in Italy and Germany until he settled in France....
becomes his secretary, in 1943, and founded with the cousin of Chief rabbi Schneersohn, Isaac Schneersohn, the Shoah Memorial, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (Paris, France). Poliakov will tell in 1997 that he got acquainted with of Chief Rabbi Schneersohn when he was looking for a rabbi to officiate at his father's funerals. Later, at Marseille, he meets, on the Canebière
Canebière
La Canebière is the historic high street in the old quarter of Marseille, France. About a kilometre long, it runs from the Vieux-Port to the Réformés quarter.King Alexander I of Yugoslavia was assassinated here on October 9, 1934...
, Chief Rabbi Schneersohn who offers him the position of secretary. Their collaboration lasts several months and Poliakov gives up following ideological differences – he opposes the idea to contact Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
– and religious differences.
In "L'Auberge des musiciens", Léon Poliakov describes Schneour Zalman Schneersohn ("red beard, limping slightly in his caftan according to the Polish custom") and his activities at Marseille:
"About a hundred or so persons prayed in the oratory of the rue Sylvabelle in a rich-looking building in of the most beautiful neighborhoods at Marseille [...] [There] two large rooms and a hall in the first floor, a kitchen and two rooms in the mezzanine [...]. The rabbi taking refuge with his family on the first floor. The kitchen doesn’t stay empty either: furtive shadows appeared in the evening and vanished in the morning; these are escapees of the internment camps of Vichy to whom the rabbi gives refuge. One of the rooms of the first floor serves as an office and as a function room – a never-ending stream of Jewish miseries -, the other, the office of the rabbi, is at the same time a synagogue and a classroom; there weddings are celebrated and divorces are settled and even financial disputes."
In his private diary, Raymond-Raoul Lambert, who heads the UGIF-Sud writes on 17 August 1943: "The 28 (28 July 1943) I go, with Simone and the children, to visit a home for children close to Voiron, headed by an orthodox rabbin who resembles Rasputin. In such a milieu I feel Christian and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
." The Israeli historian Richard Cohen thus explains Lambert's reaction:"It's about rabbi Isaac Chneerson [sic] who was responsible of an ultra-orthodox charitable organization (Association des Israélites pratiquants de France, Kehillath Haharedim), affiliated to the 3e Direction de l'UGIF (Santé). The "assimilated" response by RRL [Raymond-Raoul Lambert] is not surprising, considering the content of the letter by the latter (2 August 1943, YIVO: RG 340, dossier 3) which deals into the details of his fantastic project to establish a Jewish State based on strictly orthodox principles."
In a recent book entitled Les enfants de la Martellière, Delphine Deroo reconstitues the life of this institution. She doesn’t hide her admiration for the work of Chief Rabbi Schneour Zalman Schneersohn:
"To each threat corresponds a defense. To the wish of physical and spiritual elimination of the "Jewish Race", these men and women opposed themselves as Jews, assuming with pride their endangered Jewishness. And this moral resistance, that on my part I encounter in the insistence of rabbi Chneerson [Schneour Zalman Schneersohn] to strictly observe the religious laws – showing for him the very essence of his directly threatened Judaism -, strikes me and dazzles me by its strength and by its heroism."
After the War
After the war, rabbi Schneersohn contributes to the blossoming of the non-consistorial orthodox Judaism at Paris, from his operation base at 10, rue Dieu, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris close to Place de la RépubliquePlace de la République
The Place de la République is a square in Paris, located on the border between the 3rd, 10th and 11th arrondissements. It is named after the French Republic. The Métro station of République lies beneath the square.-History:...
.
Several personalities later will assert the influence of his teaching, including Olga Katunal, according to whom « Zalman Schneurson » was her greatest teacher, and Henri Atlan
Henri Atlan
Henri Atlan is a French biophysicist and philosopher.Born to a Jewish family in French Algeria, Atlan gained degrees in medicine and biophysics at the University of Paris . He then moved to the University of California, Berkeley working on aging and mutation...
who, at the end of his book Entre le cristal et la fumée (1979) quotes his «Teacher» without naming him.
Schneour Zalman Schneersohn is close to rabbi David Feuerwerker
David Feuerwerker
- Born in Geneva :He was born on October 2, 1912, at 11 Rue du Mont-Blanc, in Geneva, Switzerland. He was the seventh of eleven children. His father Jacob Feuerwerker was born in Sighet, now Sighetu Marmatiei, Maramureş, then Hungary, now Rumania...
, whose sons study with him, rue Dieu. Rabbi Feuerwerker is present, with his family, when Schneour Zalman Schneersohn and his wife board the train for Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
, when they leave for United States.
In the 1960s, Schneour Zalman Schneersohn immigrates to the United States, and continues there his task as a teacher, in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York. The Yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
that he heads there comprises a training program in computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, to give a trade to his students, which places him, at the time, at the avant-garde.
He dies at New York, on 2 July 1980 (18 Tammuz (Hebrew month) 5740).
The arrival in France of Menachem Mendel Schneerson and of Chaya Mushka Schneerson (1933)
In a recent book (2010), Heilman & Friedman state that it is plausible that what made the futur RebbeRebbe
Rebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
of Lubavitch Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe among his followers, was a prominent Hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He was fifth in a direct paternal line to the third Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel...
and his wife Chaya Mushka Schneerson
Chaya Mushka Schneerson
Chaya Mushka Schneerson , referred to by Lubavitchers as The Rebbetzin, was the wife of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism. She was the second of three daughters of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok...
decide to go settle at Paris in 1933 was the presence there of cousins: Schneour Zalman Schneersohn, Isaac Schneersohn
Isaac Schneersohn
Isaac Schneersohn was a French rabbi, industrialist, and the founder of the first Holocaust Archives and Memorial, born in the Ukraine....
and Édmée Schneerson. In the 1960s, it would be Schneour Zalman Schneersohn's turn to go settle at New York, where his cousin, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, was the Rebbe of Lubavitch.
The reunion of Chana Schneerson and Menachem Mendel Schneerson by Schneour Zalman Schneersohn (1947)
During the winter of 1947, RebbetzinRebbetzin
Rebbitzin or Rabbanit is the title used for the wife of a rabbi, typically from the Orthodox, or Haredi, and Hasidic Jewish groups...
Chana Schneerson arrived at Paris. She has not seen her oldest son, Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe among his followers, was a prominent Hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He was fifth in a direct paternal line to the third Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel...
, the futur seventh and last Rebbe of Lubavitch, since his departure from Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
to go to Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
where he rejoined his futur father-in-law, rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch. That was 20 years earlier.
Lubavitch hasidim go to welcome Menachem Mendel at the airport, but his flight is delayed by four hours. They decide to wait for him at the residence of rabbi Schneour Zalman Schneersohn, Menachem Mendel's cousin. Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson stays by Schneour Zalman Schneersohn.
A telegram from the Rebbe of Lubavitch, Yosef Yitzchok, intended for his son-in-law Menachem Mendel is received, with the words
in Hebrew: "Boruch atah b'bo'echa" ("Blessed are you in your coming").
Rabbi Schneour Zalman Schneersohn concludes that Menachem Mendel has arrived. Soon after, a taxi drops Menachem Mendel in front of the residence..
A farbrengen
Farbrengen
A Farbrengen is a Hasidic gathering. This term is only used by Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim, as other Hasidim have a Tish. It may consist of explanations of general Torah subjects, with an emphasis on Hasidic philosophy, relating of Hasidic stories, and lively Hasidic melodies, with refreshments being...
is arranged. Menachem Mendel recalls that Joseph didn’t see his father Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
for twenty-two years.
Menachem Mendel remains at Paris during three months, from the month of Adar
Adar
Adar is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a winter month of 29 days...
until the Festival of Shavuot
Shavuot
The festival of is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan ....
. During these three months, he pays a visit to his mother twice daily, in the morning and in the evening.
On the Shabbat
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
days and on the days of Festivals, he walks from his hotel to be with his mother. They share then their meals.
On the eve of the departure of Menachem Mendel Schneerson and of his mother Chana Schneerson for New York, Schneour Zalman Schneersohn arranges in his house a big farbrengen
Farbrengen
A Farbrengen is a Hasidic gathering. This term is only used by Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim, as other Hasidim have a Tish. It may consist of explanations of general Torah subjects, with an emphasis on Hasidic philosophy, relating of Hasidic stories, and lively Hasidic melodies, with refreshments being...
..