Chaya Mushka Schneerson

Wife of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1901–1988)

  • Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (father)
  • Nechama Dinah Schneersohn (mother)

Chaya Mushka (Moussia) Schneerson (Yiddish: חיה מושקא שניאורסאן; March 16, 1901 – February 10, 1988), referred to by Lubavitchers as The Rebbetzin, was the wife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and last rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism. She was the second of three daughters of the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe, Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn. She was named after the wife of the third Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn.

Biography

Early life

Chaya Mushka Schneerson's gravesite

She was born in Babinovichi, near the city of Lubavitch on Shabbat, the 25th of Adar of the year 5661 (March 16, 1901 (NS); March 3, 1901 (OS)). At the request of her grandfather, Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, she was named Chaya Mushka after her great great grandmother, the wife of Menachem Mendel Schneersohn.[2] She lived in Lubavitch until the autumn of 1915 when due to World War I, she and her family fled to Rostov. In 1920, on the death of her grandfather, the fifth Lubavitcher rebbe, Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, her father became the sixth rebbe of Lubavitch.

In May 1924, she moved with her family to Leningrad, where her father was forced to go after several years of being singled out for persecution by the local Jewish section of the Communist Party in Rostov.[3] In the autumn of 1927, her father was imprisoned for disseminating Torah observance, and she participated in successful efforts to have him released. His sentence was commuted to exile,[4] and Chaya Mushka accompanied her father to Kostroma.[5] After his release, the Schneersohn family left the Soviet Union and moved to Riga, Latvia.

Marriage

Part of a series on
Chabad
(Rebbes and Chasidim)
770 Eastern Parkway
Rebbes of Chabad
    •  Category
    •  Media on Commons
  • v
  • t
  • e

In 1928 she married Menachem Mendel Schneerson in Warsaw, and they went to live in Berlin, where he studied in a local university. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, they fled to Paris. When Germany invaded France in 1940 they escaped from France on the Serpa Pinto, the last passenger ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean before a U-boat blockade began. They settled in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, where many Lubavitcher Hasidim had already settled. However, her younger sister Shaina Horenstein and Shaina's husband, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Horenstein, were trapped in Poland and murdered by the Germans at Treblinka.

In 1950 her father died and her husband was formally appointed as the seventh Lubavitcher rebbe.[6]

In the court case over ownership of the Chabad Library, she testified saying, according to the chabad website, "My father, along with all his books, belong to the Chassidim."[7]

Death

She died on February 10, 1988, 22nd of Shevat, 5748.[8]

Soon after her death, her husband founded a charitable organization, Keren Ha'Chomesh (Chomesh is an acronym of Chaya Mushka Schneerson), primarily working in women's religious, social and educational programs. A campus of the Bais Rivka girls' school ("Campus Chomesh") was also named after her.

References

  1. ^ "Thursday, Adar II 25, 5727 / April 6, 1967 - Jewish Calendar - Hebrew Calendar". Retrieved November 24, 2023.
  2. ^ Birth – Jewish History – Chabad.org
  3. ^ https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Rostov-on-Don "With the establishment of Soviet authority, the local Evsektsiia in the 1920s promoted the closure of Jewish institutions; it also persecuted Zionist and religious leaders, above all, Yosef Yitsḥak Shneerson. The Tomkhe Temimim yeshiva, initially closed in 1921, survived clandestinely until May 1924, when Yosef Yitsḥak was compelled to move to Leningrad."
  4. ^ Encyclopedia of Hasidism, entry: Schneersohn, Joseph Isaac. Naftali Lowenthal. Aronson, London 1996. ISBN 1-56821-123-6
  5. ^ Ami Magazine Features Spread on the Rebbetzin – CrownHeights.info
  6. ^ "A Brief Biography of the Rebbetzin - Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka (Moussia) Schneerson - Chabad.org". Retrieved November 24, 2023.
  7. ^ Her Name – Jewish History – Chabad.org
  8. ^ Goldman, Ari L. (February 11, 1988), "Chaya Schneerson, Wife of the Leader Of the Lubavitchers", The New York Times

Bibliography

  • The Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneersohn. A Brief Biography. Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch: New York, 1999, 2004. ISBN 0-8266-0101-4

External links

  • Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson: The Life and Legacy of the Rebbe's Wife


  • v
  • t
  • e
Schneersohn family tree
Shneur Zalman[i]
(1745–1812)		Shterna
Shalom Shachna[ii]Devorah Leah
(d. 1792)		Dovber[iii]
(1773–1827)		Sheina
Menachem Mendel[iv]
(1789–1866)		Chaya Mushka
(d. 1860)
Baruch Shalom
(1805–1869)		Shmuel[v]
(1834–1882)		Yosef Yizchak[vi]
(1822–1876)		Yisroel Noah[vii]
(1815–1883)		Chaim Schneur Zalman[viii]
(d. 1879)		Yehuda Leib[ix]
(1811–1866)
Levi Yitzchak
(1834–1878)		Shalom Dovber[x]
(1860–1920)		Shterna Sara
(1860–1942)		Avraham
(1860–1937)		Yitzchak Dovber[xi]
(1833–1910)		Shlomo Zalman[xii]
(1830–1900)		Shalom Dovber[xiii]
(d. 1908)		Shmaryahu Noah[xiv]
(1842–1924)
Baruch Schneur
(d. 1926)		Yosef Yitzchak[xv]
(1880–1950)		Nechama Dina
(1881–1971)		Levi Yitzchak[xvi]
(d. 1904)
Levi Yitzchak
(1878–1944)		Chana
(1880–1964)
Menachem Mendel[xvii]
(1902–1994)		Chaya Mushka
(1901–1988)
  Light green indicates a Hasidic Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty
  Light purple indicates a Hasidic Rebbe of the Chabad-Kapust dynasty
  Light orange indicates a Hasidic Rebbe of the Chabad-Niezhin dynasty
  Light blue indicates a Hasidic Rebbe of the Chabad-Liadi dynasty
  Light yellow indicates a Hasidic Rebbe of Avrutch dynasty

Solid lines indicate parents/children, dashed lines show marriages, dotted lines show in-laws. Additional members of Schneersohn family are not listed here

Notes:
  1. ^ Founder and first Rebbe of Chabad, known as Shneur Zalman of Liady
  2. ^ Surname Altschuler
  3. ^ 2nd Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, known as Dovber Schneuri and the Middle Rebbe
  4. ^ 3rd Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, known as Tzemach Tzedek, first to assume the surname "Schneersohn"
  5. ^ 4th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, known as Maharash
  6. ^ Rebbe in Avrutch
  7. ^ 1st Rebbe of Chabad-Niezhin
  8. ^ 1st Rebbe of Chabad-Liadi
  9. ^ 1st Rebbe of Chabad-Kapust, known as Maharil of Kapust
  10. ^ 5th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, known as Rashab
  11. ^ 2nd Rebbe of Chabad-Liadi, known as Maharid
  12. ^ 2rd Rebbe of Chabad-Kapust
  13. ^ 3rd Rebbe of Chabad-Kapust, known as Rashab of Rechitsa
  14. ^ 4th Rebbe of Chabad-Kapust
  15. ^ 6th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, known as Rayatz
  16. ^ 3rd Rebbe of Chabad-Liadi, Levi Yitzchak Guterman, son-in-law of Chaim Schneur Zalman Schneersohn
  17. ^ 7th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, uses the spelling of "Schneerson"
References:
  • Schneersohn, Yosef Yitzchak; Schneerson, Menachem Mendel (2005). Hayom Yom: Bilingual Edition. Brooklyn, NY: Kehot Publication Society. ISBN 0-8266-0669-5.
  • v
  • t
  • e
Rebbes
Places and landmarks
Holidays
Organizations
Schools
Texts
Practices and Concepts
Chabad offshoots
  • Strashelye
  • Kopust
  • Liadi
  • Niezhin
  • Avrutch
  • Malachim
Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata
International
  • FAST
  • ISNI
  • VIAF
National
  • Israel
  • United States