On a Shabbat morning, January 28, 1950 (10th of Shevat) the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson of righteous memory passed away. He was the beloved father in law of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson who would come to succeed him and take the mantel of the Chabad movement one year later on the same date.
Before arriving to America on 1940, the previous Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak devoted his life to keeping the Jewish flame alive in Czarist and communist Russia. He was one of the most remarkable Jewish personalities of the 20th Century. In his seventy years of life he encountered every conceivable challenge of Jewish life: progroms,two World Wars, persecution, incarceration,etc… but he never gave up and he prevailed.
Upon arriving in NY after his rescue from Nazi-occupied Warsaw, he took the new challenge of waking up the frigid spiritual atmosphere of the western world by establishing Yeshivas and day schools, a publishing house for Jewish books, a social service support organizations in which he saved countless Jews from assimilation.
Exactly one year later of his death, his son in law Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson took over the leadership of Chabad Lubavitch making him the seventh and last Rebbe of this dynasty. He was chosen by the people to be the successor of such big responsibility. The Rebbe, as he is warmly called, expanded his mentors legacy by creating many campaigns and sending thousands of Sheliahs or emissaries to remote countries were Jews lived to build Jewish life in these places and reawaken the Jewish sparks. We owe in great part to these two incredible leaders of our times the continuation and rebuilding of countless Jewish lives who after WWII would of been lost forever and the rekindling of love and reconnecting to G-d, our Torah and Mitzvahs by their inspiration and teachings.
I can count myself as one of these very fortunate Jews that was touched by them.
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