Chabad Trounces on Rebbe's Memory-Goes Jews For Jesus

OK Jeopardy Fans--"World Religions for $1,000" The answer is "A group who worship a Rabbi that was resurrected as the Jewish Messiah." If you answered "What are Christians ?" the announcer might say something like this:

"You are wrong, YOU LOST. And let me tell you what you didn't win: a twenty volume set of the Encyclopedia International, a case of Turtle wax, and a year supply of Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat. but that's not all. You also made yourself look like a jerk in front of millions of people. You brought shame and disgrace to your family name for generations to come. You don't get to Back tomorrow-- You don't even get a lousy copy of our home game. you're a complete loser!"

The correct answer is Chabad Chassidim, or at least a lot of them. I see the Chabad's Mitzvah Mobile near my office often. It looks like a Winnebago type vehicle with a giant picture of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn on it with the words "the Moshiach is coming." I always thought it was kind of a warning to " get your acts together," but friends tell me that it really proclaiming that the great Rabbi is returning as the Messiah. Some people say it outright, like the group below celebrating the 13th anniversary of his "disappearance" , others just hint at it in public like the Winnebago group above. One thing's for sure, as Jews we have to zealously guard against false messiahs even those that come from within our ranks as much as we have to guard against the Jews for Jesus that come from outside our ranks. From what I know of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (from people who have met him) this great Rabbi whose memory is being tampered with, would want us to fight for his memory. When People go around calling him the Moshiach they are destroying everything he fought for in his life. This is a shandah, this is a desecration of the dead the same as destroying Jewish Tombstones in Oddesa. Actually this is a lot worse...this is the destruction of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn's legacy.

On the 13th Yartzeit of the Rabbi, may his memory be for a blessing.

Maverick Chabad group to toast the Messiah in J'lem, TA pubs

Matthew Wagner, Jpost

A maverick group of US Chabad Hassidim will mix free booze and theology Monday night to promulgate among pub-going Israelis the message that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, who passed away 13 years ago, is the Jewish Messiah.

The strikingly Christian idea that a deceased man will be resurrected to bring salvation to the material world will be spread throughout some 60 drinking holes in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Monday night. Monday is the third day of Tammuz, the thirteenth anniversary of Schneerson's death or "disappearance," as some Chabad Hassidim prefer to call it.

Meanwhile, mainstream Chabad representatives disowned the initiative. Rabbi Menahem Brod, official spokesman for the Youth Union of Chabad (Agudat Tzeirei Chabad) said that that the campaign was giving Chabad a bad name.

"Not a single Chabad rabbi has stood up to take responsibility for the campaign," said Brod. "Whoever is behind it has no right to use Chabad's name." Despite attempts by The Jerusalem Post to identify the initiators, none of the US Chabad rabbis behind the actual planning were willing to divulge their names.

Matisiyahu Hirsch Hacohen Abravenel, who said he was a spokesman for the group organizing the pub initiative, explained that hundreds of Chabad rabbis all over world were behind it. But he refused to give their names.

Abravanel said that it was not Brod, but the Rabbi Messiah [Schneersohn] who represented Chabad Hassidism. In a press conference entitled "Free Drinks on the Messiah," Le'Omek Hatoda'ah and Morel Tzur PR firms described how stewardesses, armed with liquor, would visit bars in the nation's two largest cities to drink to the Messiah.

One of Morel Tzur's PR people intimated that the stewardesses would use sex appeal to divert the male bar-goers' attention to the Messianic message.

But according to Rabbi Tzik Zimrony, head of the Association for the True and Complete Salvation (Ha'aguda le'ma'an ha'ge'ula ha'amitit ve'hashlema) and a Messianic Chabad rabbi in Bat Yam, the stewardesses would be dressed modestly and would only approach females. Meanwhile, stewards would approach men.

Zimrony said that the stewards would ask the bar clientele to leave the confines of the liquor-serving establishments for two "festivity compounds," one at the Tel Aviv Port and one near Jerusalem's Russian Compound, where they would be greeted by Chabad rabbis from the US.

"It is not right for Chabad rabbis to go into the bars," he said. Zimrony denied that the campaign was aimed at exploiting pub-goers' inebriated state to inculcate a heady leap of faith.

Rather, the goal was simply to reach out to a less devout crowd.

"Israeli backpackers have had very positive experiences in Chabad Houses in Peru, Brazil, Thailand and Nepal," said Zimrony. "But they often don't follow up here in Israel. I think part of the reason is because the local Chabad Houses are too conservative, too staid. A group of US guys wants to change that."

But local Chabad rabbis and activists said that the US Chabad Hassidim, backed by a US businessman, were not obeying Chabad's outreach etiquette. "Going into a pub and offering drinks gives the wrong impression," said Yoni Kahana, a Chabad activist, "as if we were adapting yiddishkeit to the needs of the bar-goers. Chabad's message has always been, 'come and join us where we are at.'"

Rabbi Yigal Pizem, one of Chabad's more Messianic rabbis and a close associate of Zimrony's, who is normally at odds with Brod and other more mainstream Chabad figures, agreed that the pub campaign was not Chabad's style. Pizem, who heads a high school with 80 students in Kiryat Shmuel, said that going into pubs was wrong.

"We have to bring Jews closer without joining them in their secular behavior." But Zimrony rejected the criticism.

"The rebbe [Schneeersohn], may he live a long life, supports the campaign enthusiastically." Zimrony said that Schneersohn, 0who died of a stroke in Manhattan's Beth Israel Medical Center in June 1994, still communicated with his faithful. A Hassid with a question writes it down on a small piece of paper and places it randomly in one of the rebbe's collections of letters. If performed properly, the answer to the question is provided by Schneersohn in the letter that appears on the page where the piece of paper is placed.

Brod said that ceremonies commemorating the 13th anniversary of Schneersohn's death would be celebrated in Chabad Houses all over the world. In Israel, the main ceremony would be in Kfar Chabad.

Asked if he believed that Schneersohn was the Messiah, Brod answered, "We hope that when the Messiah comes the rebbe will come also."

But was Schneersohn the Messiah? "Some things are better off being handled by God."