Chabad, a success story

Chabad, the Lubavitch Hasidic movement headquartered in New York, is the most effective movement in the Jewish world today, according to Michael Steinhardt, a major figure on the American philanthropy scene, who is a self-defined secular and non-believing Jew. Steinhardt made the statement at the annual Chabad convention last week in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hilton Hotel before an audience of 3,000, of which more than 2,000 were Chabad emissaries worldwide.

Steinhardt, who contributes millions of dollars to Jewish education in the United States, helps fund the Chabad youth movement, which has branches in over 100 cities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.).

Professor Alan Dershowitz, another well-known American Jewish figure, who is not a Chabad member and who is active in the struggle against anti-Semitism and pro-Israel causes, was the guest of honor at the convention.

Dershowitz opened his speech praising the energy, warmth, love and the waves of yiddishkeit he felt in the room. He told the audience of his surprise to discover that Jewish students at his alma mater, Harvard, rather than rebel against the values of Judaism as is common to do at their age, attend in the hundreds the Friday-night dinners put on by Chabad.

The extent of the Chabad network, with 4,000 centers in 70 countries, is unprecedented in the Jewish world and is difficult to explain in conventional sociological terms. The expansion continued despite the loss 11 years ago of its renowned spiritual leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who championed the cause of bringing Jews together and under whose direction Chabad became famous for its aggressive marketing of Judaism.

Especially surprising is the ability of the movement to go on and even to expand, lacking not only a leader, but also centralized leadership. Tens of thousands of tourists and backpackers visit the Chabad houses in India, Nepal, South America and Africa, where they sometimes have their first encounter with Orthodox Judaism.

The Chabad empire in the C.I.S., led by tycoon Lev Leviev, is an educational and social network consisting of hundreds of rabbis and emissaries and tens of thousands of students in educational institutions with multi-million dollar budgets.

Chabad, unlike any other Hasidic or Jewish organization, operates more like a business initiative. Chabad emissaries, mostly young American or Israeli couples who radiate kindness and devotion, begin their mission with basic assistance from Chabad’s Brooklyn headquarters, but eventually have to find their own livelihood and contributions. Gradually the emissaries becomes autonomous. In many cases, they receive donations from wealthy Jews who themselves are distant from Judaism, and who want their contribution to go to what they see as an “authentic” form of Judaism.

Chabad representatives are sometimes a source of tension with the Jewish establishment, which views them as competition for human and economic resources. The Hanukkah menorah project that Chabad promotes on city streets throughout the world has occasionally put it on a collision course with local authorities where the separation of religion and state is mandated. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the menorah was not a religious symbol.

Chabad has recently underscored efforts to shake off the messianic image that has adhered to certain sectors of the movement; it has rejected out of hand the extreme sect that has transformed Schneerson into the messiah. The organizers of the New York convention went out of their way to express their opposition to messianic elements.

In Israel, Chabad representatives are trying to keep a low profile in debates on controversial political issues.

The movement appears to be succeeding in its efforts to obtain legitimacy from the Jewish establishment. This year, Chabad increased its numbers at the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly (GA), and took part for the first time in its panels; in the past it had avoided taking part in gatherings in which non-Orthodox groups were dominant. Chabad teachers are now employed in schools belonging to the Conservative and even the Reform movement, and campus connections have increased.

Even President George W. Bush, to whom the Washington D.C. Chabad rabbi, Levy Shem-Tov, is close, noted in a public speech the contribution of Chabad to rescue efforts after the New Orleans flood.

Chabad, of course, has many detractors, but it seems that even in the eyes of its detractors, in light of assimilation and demographic decline of the Jewish people in the Diaspora, the movement has epitomized the constant search of masses of Jews today for significance and primal identity.