The Mission Statement That Changed the Jewish World

7/5/24

This coming Tuesday, July 9, marks thirty years since the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, in 1994.

The Rebbe was the global Jewish leader who transformed Chabad from a small, insular community into the largest Jewish movement in the world, with thousands of centers in all 50 states and over 110 countries.

My family had a deeply close and personal relationship with the Rebbe.

When the Rebbe assumed leadership of Chabad in 1950 and began sending his students to strengthen Jewish communities around the world, my maternal grandparents, Rabbi Nachman and Fradel Sudak, were one of the first couples he charged with this mission, appointing them as directors of Chabad in the UK.

It was shortly after the Holocaust. Jewish communities had been destroyed and uprooted, and those that survived were shattered. Israel had recently been established, yet Jewish education was weak, Jewish pride around the world was practically non-existent, and the future of world Jewry seemed bleak.

Chabad itself lost many of its families to the Holocaust, and hundreds of others (including my great-grandfather) were killed or exiled by the communists for the "sin" of spreading Jewish education in the Soviet Union.

But in his first address upon assuming leadership of Chabad, the Rebbe turned to the small group of mostly survivors that had gathered on that winter night and asked them to share in his vision of rebuilding Jewish communities and touching the hearts and minds of Jews around the world.

"Love of G-d, Love of the Torah, and Love of Israel are all one. It is impossible to love one without loving the other," he said that night.

This was the mission statement the Rebbe shared in his first public talk, and the statement that has guided and empowered Chabad ever since.

Since that call, thousands of Chabad couples have moved across the word to serve in the most distant of communities, living far from family and friends who share their lifestyle. Because it is impossible to love G-d without caring for his people. And it is impossible to care for Torah without teaching it to his children.

The Jewish people are akin to the letters of a Torah scroll, the Rebbe would often say. If even one of the hundreds of thousands of letters in a Torah is missing, the entire Torah is invalid and forbidden to be read from in a shul.

If even one of the millions of Jews around the world feels distant or disconnected from Judaism and Jewish life and community, we are all blemished. Blemished like an incomplete Torah. Forbidden to be read from. If some of us are missing, we are all tarnished, the Rebbe argued.

This is an audacious statement, and an even bolder task. But the Rebbe set out on his mission, tirelessly establishing thousands of Chabad Houses around the world with the mandate to build welcoming communities in places where some might feel alone, and help rekindle the Jewish spark in a soul where it may seem lost. 

The late former British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks often quipped, "If the Nazis hunted down every Jew in hate, the Rebbe would search out every Jew in love."

Tuesday will be the Rebbe's thirtieth yahrzeit. I never had the merit to meet him in person, as I was born two years after his passing, but I am committed to his mission and empowered by it.

The Rebbe was a global leader and a far-reaching visionary. His mission won’t be complete until every Jewish child in the world receives a Jewish education, and every individual is part of a community– what you might call, a “messianic age.”