Behind the Headlines: Power Struggle Within Lubavitch Highlights Leadership Vacuum

As the Lubavitcher rebbe withdrew from public view last week during a setback in his recovery from a major stroke, a power struggle was taking place among his most trusted lieutenants.

Several of his closest aides, all of whom have worked for their beloved leader for decades, were fighting over control of the most important jewels in the Lubavitch crown of organizations.

It is likely to be the first of many battles for control over the engines that run the Chabad machine, as the movement begins to grapple with the realities of an incapacitated leader and a lack of clear succession.

The fight is about control over the Lubavitch empire and, ultimately, about directing the future course of the movement.

Because the 91-year-old rebbe has no heir apparent, the movement’s future will likely be decided by those who control power in the various parts of the Lubavitch organization.

The current tension among members of the Lubavitch inner circle is “a barometer of the realization that they’re headed into a period of a vacuum at the top, where the key power will be the people who run the bureaucratic organization,” said Samuel Heilman, author of “Defenders of the Faith,” about fervently Orthodox Jews.

“Whoever is running the bureaucracy will be that much more important in the absence of a charismatic leader,” added Heilman, who is a sociologist at the City University of New York.

This most recent power struggle began following the death last month of the man who had run the central Lubavitch organizations for 40 years, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Isaac Hodakov.

The vacuum left by his death and the struggle that ensued may have portent for the future.

Hodakov, who died at the age of 91, came with the previous rebbe to America from Riga, Latvia. He led every major Lubavitch organization, including the rebbe’s secretariat, which is composed of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s five closest aides.

INFIGHTING BEGAN AFTER HODAKOV’S DEATH

The other key groups he ran include Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, which directs Lubavitch’s educational activities and its network of thousands of emissaries worldwide; Agudas Hassidei Chabad, which represents policy set by Lubavitch leaders; Machne Israel, the movement’s social service and youth-program arm; and Kehot Publication Society.

It did not take long after he died for the infighting to begin over who would control the finances and management of these supra-organizations, which each serve as umbrella groups for dozens more.

Another member of the secretariat — Rabbi Nissan Mindel — has shared responsibility with Hodakov for running the organizations.

But for the last several years Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, who is in his 50s, has taken over day-to-day responsibilities for the organizations from Mindel, who is now in his early 80s, said a Lubavitch insider.

Three of the rebbe’s five secretaries — Rabbis Sholom Menachem Mendel Simpson, Yehuda Leib Groner and Binyomin Klein — are at odds with Krinsky over who is to control the organizations.

Krinsky has long been the spokesman for Lubavitch. And behind the scenes, Krinsky has been the most powerful member of the inner circle of the secretariat.

With Hodakov’s passing and Mindel’s decreased activity, Krinsky has been left responsible for the two nearly all-encompassing umbrella organizations of Lubavitch: Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and Agudas Hassidei Chabad.

“Ultimately, Rabbi Krinsky is in charge of the money angle” too, said the insider, referring to disbursing the donations sent to Lubavitch.

So to Krinsky it apparently seemed natural that he would inherit the responsibilities earlier handled by Hodakov.

But the troika of Groner, Klein and Simpson do not agree. Instead, they believe that financial control and authority should be shared among all of the secretaries.

According to a statement they made, which was broadcast over the Crown Heights Hot Line — a taped message which can be accessed by telephone — the three rabbis went in to see the rebbe about this issue.

REBBE NODS APPROVAL

They phrased their questions simply, in a way that only required a nod or shake of his head in response.

“There is a suggestion that members of the secretariat should all become members of the board of directors of these organizations. Is this appropriate or not?” they asked the rebbe.

He nodded his head, according to a statement made public by the three.

Then they asked the rebbe for approval to control the organizations’ finances.

Should “each member of the secretariat be authorized to sign” the organizations’ checks? they then asked.

Again, the rebbe nodded his head, according to their statement.

However, said the Lubavitch insider, while the three rabbis asked the rebbe to approve the spreading of power among all the secretaries, they did so without the approval of the other two — Krinsky and Mindel, who already control the organizations.

The troika have generally been quiet, behind-the-scenes figures in the Lubavitch movement and it is not known how, if at all, they differ in philosophy or approach from Krinsky.

Krinksy did not return repeated telephone messages left for him.

The internal battle has not finished playing itself out.

So it remains unclear whether authority over the worldwide Lubavitch network remains effectively concentrated in the hands of Krinsky, or if, in the end, his three colleagues will be successful in their effort to wrest some of the control from his hands.

Referring to the description of the rebbe giving permission to these men, sociologist Heilman said that even “the idea that the rebbe is making decisions really strains credulity.

“Whoever is interpreting those decisions is really making them,” he said.

This latest episode illuminates the beginning of a period of difficulty and dissension for Lubavitch, as those who will lead the organization during the interregnum between this rebbe and the next emerge, say observers.