“Unlikely Allies: The Shocking Nazi Mission to Rescue a Jewish Leader that Shook History”
Rabbi Dovber’s only son, Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, was born in Lyubavichi on June 21, 1880. From an early age, Yosef was groomed to become the next Lubavitcher Rebbe, being appointed his father’s personal secretary at age 15 and attending numerous rabbinical conferences in Kovno and Vilna – today Kaunas and Vilnius in Lithuania – to discuss various issues affecting Jews across the Russian Empire. In 1897 he married Nechama Schneerson, great-grand-daughter of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Tzemach Tzedek or third Rebbe, in 1898 he was appointed executive director of the Teshivah Tomchei Tmimim talmudic seminary, founded by his father the previous year. Throughout his long career, Schneerson proved himself a brilliant religious scholar, a skilled civic organizer, and a staunch advocate for the rights and welfare of Russian Jews, who were often persecuted by the Tsarist and later Bolshevik governments. In 1901 he worked with various business leaders across the Russian Empire to establish textile factories in the cities of Dubrovna and Mahilyow which ultimately employed some 2,000 Jewish employees, while during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war he arranged the shipment of kosher food to Jewish conscripts serving in the Russian army. Meanwhile, he petitioned government officials and bankers in various European countries to use their influence to end pogroms or antisemitic riots in Russia. For these activities he was arrested four times by the Tsarist government, but released every time due to lack of evidence.
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