Chaya Mushka Schneerson

Wife of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1901–1988)

For the wife of the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, see Chaya Mushka Schneersohn.

Rebbetzin

Chaya Mushka Schneerson

Chaya Schneerson in the late 1950s

Born| March 16, 1901

Babinovichi, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire[1]

Died| February 10, 1988(1988-02-10) (aged 86)

New York City, U.S.

Resting place| Old Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, New York City, U.S.
Spouse| Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Father| Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn

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

[edit]

### Early life

[edit]

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

[edit]

Part of a series on

Chabad
(Rebbes and Chasidim)

Rebbes of Chabad

* Shneur Zalman of Liadi (Alter Rebbe)
* Dovber Schneuri (Mitteler Rebbe)
* Menachem M. Schneersohn (Tzemach Tzedek)
* Shmuel Schneersohn (Rebbe Maharash)
* Sholom Dovber Schneersohn (Rebbe Rashab)
* Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (Rebbe Rayatz)
* Menachem M. Schneerson (the Rebbe)

Schneersohn family

* Chaim S. Z. of Liadi (1814–1880)
* Yitzchak Dovber of Liadi (1833–1910)
* Chana Schneerson (1880–1964)
* Chaya M. Schneersohn (d. 1860)
* Chaya M. Schneerson (1901–1988)
* Levi Y. Schneerson (1878–1944)
* Moshe Schneersohn (ca. 1784–before 1853)
* Sheina Horenstein (d. 1942)
* Shlomo Zalman Schneersohn (1830–1900)
* Shmaryahu Noah Schneersohn (1842–1924)
* Yehuda Leib Schneersohn (1808–1866)

Rabbonim

* Avraham Osdoba
* Chaim Gutnick
* Avraham Chaim Naeh
* Meir Ashkenazi
* Mordechai Ashkenazi
* Mordechai Gutnick
* Moshe Gutnick
* Pinhas Hirschprung
* Shneur Z. Fradkin
* Yaakov Schwei
* Yehuda K. Marlow
* Abraham Hecht
* Yitzchak Hendel
* Yosef Heller
* Yosef Y. Braun
* Zalman Dworkin
* Zelig Sharfstein
* Shmuel L. Medalia
* Shmarya Y. L. Medalia
* Sholom Rivkin

Mashpiim and scholars

* Aaron of Staroselye
* Herman Branover
* Yehuda Chitrik
* Manis Friedman
* Mendel Futerfas
* Yitzchak Ginsburgh
* Menachem Z. Greenglass
* Moshe Gutnick
* Moshe Havlin
* Zalman M. HaYitzchaki
* Aizel Homiler
* Simon Jacobson
* Yisroel Jacobson
* Yosef Y. Jacobson
* Yoel Kahn
* Abraham Y. Khein
* Yehoshua Mondshine
* Avraham C. Naeh
* Nissan Neminov
* Hillel Paritcher
* Ezra Schochet
* Adin Steinsaltz
* Shais Taub
* Shlomo Y. Zevin

Mazkirus and other leaders

* Leib Groner
* Jacob J. Hecht
* Chaim M. A. Hodakov
* Yehuda Krinsky
* Nissan Mindel
* Dovid Raskin
* Abraham Shemtov

Shluchim

* Menachem Brod
* Azriel Chaikin
* Shlomo Cunin
* Pinchus Feldman
* Gershon Garelik
* Yitzchok D. Groner
* Hanoch Hecht
* Gavriel Holtzberg
* Berel Lazar
* Shimon Lazaroff
* Chezki Lifshitz
* David Masinter
* Zalman I. Posner
* Menachem S. D. Raichik
* Aaron Raskin
* Arie Z. Raskin
* Shlomo Sawilowsky
* Mordechai Scheiner
* Abraham Shemtov
* Levi Shemtov
* Yehudah Teichtal
* Simcha Weinstein
* Manis Friedman

Other notable figures

* Shmuley Boteach
* Avraham Fried
* Benny Friedman
* Aharon Gurevich
* Joseph Gutnick
* Moshe Hecht
* Shea Hecht
* Bernard Levy
* Hendel Lieberman
* Michoel Muchnik
* Mendy Pellin
* Zvi Yair

Controversies

* Chabad messianism
* Chabad offshoot groups
* Barry Gurary
* Public menorah
* The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference

*     * 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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

## External links

[edit]

* 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.

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