Thousands of Lubavitcher hassidim participated last night in the festive observance of the 150th anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Lubavitcher Rebbe who founded the Chabad-Lubavitch hassidic movement in Czarist Russia approximately 190 years ago. He died on the 19th of Kislev in the Jewish year of 5573.
Police had to cordon off the synagogue where the hassidim danced and related legends of the Rebbe until the early hours of the morning. The Lubavitcher Rebbe of today, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, lives in New York. He is a direct descendant of Rabbi Shneur Zalman and is the seventh in succession of the leaders of the Lubavitcher hassidic movement.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman was a disciple of Rabbi Dovber of Messeritch (whose Yartzeit is also on Kislev 19) the successor to the famed Baal Shem Tov. He became a legend in his own day as a towering Talmudical genius and Kabbalistic and Chassidic scholar.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
