Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn רבי יוסף יצחק שניאורסון
sixth Rebbe of Chabad, who sustained Judaism in the Soviet underground
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak was born in 5640 and took over Chabad in 5680, as Soviet power was consolidating in Russia. He made the decision that shaped the movement's fate: not to leave while work was still possible. He built an underground network of secret schools, mikvahs, ritual slaughter and support for rabbis, in a country where such work meant prison.
In 5687 he was arrested in Leningrad and sentenced to death. Foreign governments and public pressure saved him: the sentence became exile, then expulsion. The day of his release, the 12th of Tammuz, is celebrated by Chabad Hasidim.
He lived in Riga, then Warsaw. In 5699, when the Germans entered Poland, he was brought out through diplomatic channels via Riga and Stockholm, reaching New York in 5700.
In America, where religious life was widely thought doomed, he declared that «America is no different» and began building from nothing: yeshivas, a publishing house, schools, emissaries. He established the headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway — an address that became a name.