Our Fellow Countryman: Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson

State Archives of Nikolayev Region, Drs. Larysa Levechenko and Vladimir Shchukin

Co-written by the Director of the State Archives of the Nikolayev Region and the area’s senior researcher and historian, this book presents the history of the Schneerson family, builders of Nikolayev’s Jewish community.

From the founding of the community by the Rebbe’s great-great-grandfather in 1850, through the leadership of Rabbi Meir Shlomo Yanovsky, the Rebbe’s maternal grandfather, through the Rebbe’s parents Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana and their child-prodigy sons, the authors tells the story of a family’s connection to a city and a region through the lens of plentiful government documents.

Shining new light on hitherto unknown details on the election of the Rebbe’s forebears to their respective posts, their connections to a shipbuilder of the imperial Russian navy, the leadership of the Rebbe’s father and his unbending stubbornness while imprisoned by the bolsheviks, and much more, the historians lay out the details as recorded by the state archives.

Learn the story of the pivotal life-cycle and community events of the Schneerson family and their inseparable connection to the Jewish community of Nikolayev. Read the heartbreaking and heroic records of fearlessness in the face of impossible odds.

Featuring data on the Rebbe and many of his closest relatives, including:

Rabbi Avrohom Dovid Lavut, the Rebbe’s great grandfather

Rabbi Meir Shlomo Yanovsky, the Rebbe’s grandfather

Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Scneerson, the Rebbe’s father

Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, the Rebbe’s mother

The Rebbe’s uncle, Rabbi Shmuel Schneerson

The Rebbe’s siblings, and many other immediate relatives