Abraham Shemtov

Rabbi Abraham Shemtov (or Avraham Avremel ) is a Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi who was one of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe workers, Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

He is a member of the board of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, the movement's umbrella organization, and was entrusted by the Rebbe with various missions, among them as the movement's envoy to the White House and Capitol Hill.

He is the founding national director of American Friends of Lubavitch, chairman of the executive board of Associated Bais Rivka Schools for girls in New York and the director of Lubavitch activities in Greater Philadelphia, PA, and director of the first Camp Gan Israel in Parksville, NY.

Abraham Isaac Shemtov was born February 16, 1937, in Moscow, Russia, to a Chassidic family. His father, Rabbi Benzion Shemtov was a staunch adherent of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Jewish activist. Abraham Shemtov grew up in the city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and studied there in an underground Jewish school in the Soviet years.

He did his undergraduate and graduate work at the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva, Brooklyn, NY, and was ordained in 1960.

Often called the "Rebbe's ambassador to DC", Shemtov developed extensive connections and friendships in Washington. He regularly leads Chabad-Lubavitch delegations to the White House and played a pivotal role in the relationships formed between Schneerson and U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

On February 28, 1984, Shemtov was appointed by President Reagan as one of the five members of the National Advisory Council on Adult Education.

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