On this day and this podcast we talk about the fate of American Jewry, Chabad, and Diabetes.

Update:

Sholem Aleichem and I find ourselves, this early Friday afternoon, in New England towns in a neighboring states. It’s a beautiful, sunny, brisk, spring day. I can hear the birds chirping over the podcast.

Our towns are the graveyards of the American Jewish life. With plenty of Chabad “emissaries” who came to officiate at the funerals and make a few bucks off the dead. The vultures circling on the horizon, the scavengers looking for leftovers of the once proud, mighty communities.

We discuss topics no one is interested in. We start with the complicated and tragic relationship between the cousins, Rabbi Schneur Zalman Schneerson and Menachem Mendel Schneerson. In the second part of the podcast, we veer into the current state of Lubavitch, again a subject no one is interested in. There are either people who are caught in the pulsating dreaming of the unrequited love, or people who leave it all behind and never look back. These groups have no in between. So, we are once more on a virtual deserted island. As if the island we are actually surviving on is not deserted enough.

You can rest assured, the life relentlessly goes on!

Chabad, a Trojan Horse of modernity?

The background:

* Zalman Schneerson - The rescue of Bertha, Malka and Bella Teitelbaum.

* Zalman Schneerson - Chapter 1 - Paris at War.

* A Letter from Zalman Mendelivich Schneerson to Meir Yankelevich Dizengoff.

* Post No. 1 - Boris Markovich Schneerson - Family of the Repker Rov - Introduction.

* Sound No. 10 - Bad Blood of the Chabad Rebbe.

Update:

The Postscript on Zalman Schneerson and Barry Gourary.

“In an age in which the media broadcast countless pieces of foolishness, the educated man is defined not by what he knows, but by what he doesn't know.” - Nicolas Gomez Davila.

Карл Маркс: “Гегель где-то отмечает, что все великие всемирно-исторические события и личности появляются, так сказать, дважды. Он забыл прибавить: первый раз в виде трагедии, второй раз в виде фарса.”

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Этот пост является общедоступным, поэтому не стесняйтесь делиться им.

Книги Ильи Лурии:

איליה לוריא, עדה ומדינה: חסידות חב"ד באימפריה הרוסית (תקפ"ח-תרמ"ג). ירושלים: הוצאת ספרים ע"ש י"ל מגנס, תשס"ו.

איליה לוריא, מחלמות ליובאוויץ' : חסידות חב"ד ברוסיה הצארית. ירושלים: מרכז זלמן שזר לחקר תולדות העם היהודי,תשע"ח

This is a companion podcast to these posts:

* Post No. 6 - Boruch Sholem and Gesia Schneerson - Kaddish and Adagio.

* Шнеерсоны в России - Schneersons in Russia.

This is a quick take as a way of introduction for a broader podcast with Sholem Aleichem. We hope to record this longer podcast tomorrow. But this will set up some themes for the conversation.

Jewish Encyclopedia - Apostle (regarding Sound No. 12 – מיהו יהודי and the Jerusalem Council).

Investigative reporting is absent from the Hareidy press. But still strong in the NYT. Specifically, the author of the articles about Satmar NYT: Brian M. Rosenthal. Brian won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for his investigations of the NY Taxi industry. Nothing of this caliber exist in the Jewish or Hareidy press. They are afraid to look in the mirror. While their communities are rotten and corrupt, they pretend to take a high moral ground in relationship to others.

The most influential and consequential meeting in human history occurred in Jerusalem c. 48 CE, around 15-20 years after the resurrection of the Mashiyach. It is sometimes called Apostolic Council because of the participants.

On the subject of Sound No. 10 - Bad Blood of the Chabad Rebbe.

The fundraising fraction did not take over Chabad in 1994, in fact, they took over and permanently held on to power since at least 1989 (33 years!), the day they convinced the aging and isolated Rebbe that the struggle of his life מיהו יהודי “who is a Jew” (and שלימות הארץ) should be silenced. That faithful day Menachem Mendel Schneerson relinquished his passion and his crown and told shluchim to shut up (הפסקת המאבק), not to upset anyone’s feelings. From that moment on the Lubavitch court lost its soul. From that instant in New York, Moscow, or Nigeria the apparatchiks banned all policies and expressions not conducive to the fundraising. When the middle and lower class, overwhelmingly support Trump, shluchim and the politburo defer to their elitist liberal donors and woke clients. A similar dynamic is unfolding in Russia as we speak where Chabad is representing the political and financial patrons only. The new “inclusive” Chabad serves money and political power.

First the Rebbe intentionally lost Chabad roots, its European and Russian anchor, he shoved the “Sinai events” of Holocaust and Gulag under the proverbial carpet and in the final chapter, detached Chabad from Israel, the third Sinai event of the past century. The idealistic spirit of Chabad was erased and Americanized.

Lubavitch traveled through a long and winding road. From the revolutionary, philosophical and ascetic counterculture of the Alter Rebbe to the practical, obedient servants of the establishment, lackeys of the lavish and corrupt oligarchic power.

As the influence of this group grows in the general community, the Jewish people should take notice. When catering exclusively to money and power Chabad promotes and reinforces the worst antisemitic stereotypes. They also betray the “rank and file” by serving the sole interest of the moneyed and politically connected class. This is as much of a trap as Jew serving Polish landlords before the upraising of Bogdan Chmelnizky or Jews in the prewar Europe taking the blame for the inherent capitalist inequalities.

Yet, a bigger trap is the spiritual decay. The foundational assumption that the young and the old could be indoctrinated and brainwashed to be numb and immune to the deep institutional corruption.

Nechama Dinah, Bere and Chana Gourary, perhaps Rayatz himself, Rav Rivkin, Rashag, Zalman Schneerson, all these names have one thing in common, they are family members or in the case of Rabbi Moshe Dov Ber Rivkin, a virtual family member who belonged to the old Royal court and all of them were downgraded by the new king. Except Raytaz himself of course as explained in the podcast.

In her letter Musia Schnnerson mentioned Ella Rivkin, daughter of the Rav and Nacha Rivkin, in the paragraph about “Berusya” Bere Gourary. Bere and Ella were probably friends. This Ella eventually married Rav Aaron Benzion Shurin, who later wrote for Forwards and documented the terror directed at his father-in-law. Here is his bio:

Since we have been talking about the letters from the Schneerson sisters to Nacha Rivkin it seems appropriate to revisit the attack on Rav Rivkin himself. Rebbe never forgot who dissed him, he never forgot who wasn’t fully supportive of his ascension to the throne., he never forgot people who deviated from the party line.

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