| rdfs:comment | - Chabad-Lubavitch is a Hasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism. One of the world's largest Hasidic movements, it is based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The name "Chabad" (Hebrew: חב"ד) is an acronym for Chochmah, Binah, Da'at (חכמה, בינה, דעת): "Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge," and "Lubavitch" is the only extant branch of a family of Hasidic groups once known collectively as the Chabad movement; the names are now used interchangeably.
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| abstract | - Chabad-Lubavitch is a Hasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism. One of the world's largest Hasidic movements, it is based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The name "Chabad" (Hebrew: חב"ד) is an acronym for Chochmah, Binah, Da'at (חכמה, בינה, דעת): "Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge," and "Lubavitch" is the only extant branch of a family of Hasidic groups once known collectively as the Chabad movement; the names are now used interchangeably. Founded in the late 18th century by Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the movement takes its name from Lyubavichi, the Russian town that served as the movement's headquarters for over a century. The movement thrived in Russia and Eastern Europe, despite persecution from the Bolshevik government and, later, the Nazi Holocaust. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, who arrived in New York in March 1940, planted the seeds of the movement in the United States, and his son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, began turning the movement into a powerful force in Jewish life. His policies led to the establishment of Chabad institutions in over 900 cities around the world, and in the early 21st century there were an estimated 3,300 Chabad institutions around the world in 75 countries, providing outreach and educational activities for Jews through Jewish community centers, synagogues, schools and camps. The movement has over 200,000 adherents, and up to one million Jews attend Chabad services at least once a year. Chabad's adherents, known as Chabadniks (Hebrew: חב"דניק) and/or Lubavitchers (Yiddish: ליובאוויטשער), follow Chabad traditions and prayer services based on Lurianic kabbalah. As "Hasidim", they follow the Chassidus of Israel ben Eliezer. Chabad-Lubavitch has had seven leaders or rebbes, most recently the late Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who succeeded his father-in-law, Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn in 1950 and served until his death in 1994.
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