Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Lubavitcher Rebbe
Menachem Mendel Schneerson at the Lag BaOmer parade in Brooklyn, 1987.
Synagogue	770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY
Began	10 Shevat 5711 / January 17, 1951
Predecessor	Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn
Personal details
Born	April 5, 1902 OS (11 Nissan 5662) Nikolaev, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Mykolaiv, Ukraine)
Died	June 12, 1994 (3 Tammuz 5754) (aged 92) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Buried	Queens, New York, U.S.
Dynasty	Chabad Lubavitch
Parents	Levi Yitzchak Schneerson Chana Yanovski Schneerson
Spouse	Chaya Mushka Schneerson
Semicha	Rogatchover Gaon

Menachem Mendel Schneerson (April 5, 1902 OS – June 12, 1994), known to many as the Rebbe, was a Russian Empire-born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and the last Lubavitcher Rebbe. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.

As leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the Holocaust and transformed it into one of the most influential movements in world Jewry, with an international network of over 3,000 educational and social centers. The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled and synagogues.

Schneerson's published teachings fill more than 300 volumes and he is noted for his contributions to Jewish continuity and religious thought, as well as his wide-ranging contributions to traditional Torah scholarship. He is recognized as the pioneer of Jewish outreach.

In 1978, the U.S. Congress asked President Carter to designate Schneerson's birthday as the national Education Day U.S.A.. It has been since commemorated as Education and Sharing Day. In 1994, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his "outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity." Schneerson's resting place attracts Jews and non-Jews for prayer.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born on Friday, April 5, 1902 (OS) (11 Nissan, 5662) in the Black Sea port of Nikolaev in the Russian Empire (now Mykolaiv in Ukraine). His father was Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, a renowned Talmudic scholar and authority on Kabbalah and Jewish law. His mother was Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (nee Yanovski). He was named after the third Chabad rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, from whom he was a direct patrilineal descendent.