Menachem Mendel Schneerson

The life and thought of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, one of the most influentialand controversialrabbis in modern Judaism The Chabad-Lubavitch movement, one of the worlds best-known Hasidic groups, is driven by the belief that we are on the verge of the messianic age. One man is most recognized for the movements success: the seventh and last Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (19021994), believed by many of his followers to be the Messiah. While hope of redemption has sustained the Jewish people through exile and persecution, it has also upended Jewish society with its apocalyptic and anarchic tendencies. So it is not surprising that Schneersons messianic fervor made him one of the most controversial rabbinic leaders of the twentieth century. How did he go from being an ordinary rabbis son in the Russian Empire to a mystical sage who revitalized a centuries-old Hasidic movement, constructed an outreach empire of unprecedented scope, and earned the admiration and condemnation of political, communal, and religious leaders in America and abroad? Ezra Glinters deeply researched account is the first biography of Schneerson to combine a nonpartisan view of his life, work, and impact with an insiders understanding of the ideology that drove him and that continues to inspire the Chabad-Lubavitch movement today.