Sound No. 11 - The Watershed Moment that Changed Chabad Forever

On the subject of Sound No. 10 - Bad Blood of the Chabad Rebbe.

Dr. Itzhak Rafael name is here, so at least then he was fully on board. Shlemut Haam and Shlemut Haaretz, those were the days…

The fundraising fraction did not take over Chabad in 1994, in fact, they took over and permanently held on to power since at least 1989 (33 years!), the day they convinced the aging and isolated Rebbe that the struggle of his life מיהו יהודי “who is a Jew” (and שלימות הארץ) should be silenced. That faithful day Menachem Mendel Schneerson relinquished his passion and his crown and told shluchim to shut up (הפסקת המאבק), not to upset anyone’s feelings. From that moment on the Lubavitch court lost its soul. From that instant in New York, Moscow, or Nigeria the apparatchiks banned all policies and expressions not conducive to the fundraising. When the middle and lower class, overwhelmingly support Trump, shluchim and the politburo defer to their elitist liberal donors and woke clients. A similar dynamic is unfolding in Russia as we speak where Chabad is representing the political and financial patrons only. The new “inclusive” Chabad serves money and political power.

First the Rebbe intentionally lost Chabad roots, its European and Russian anchor, he shoved the “Sinai events” of Holocaust and Gulag under the proverbial carpet and in the final chapter, detached Chabad from Israel, the third Sinai event of the past century. The idealistic spirit of Chabad was erased and Americanized.

Lubavitch traveled through a long and winding road. From the revolutionary, philosophical and ascetic counterculture of the Alter Rebbe to the practical, obedient servants of the establishment, lackeys of the lavish and corrupt oligarchic power.

As the influence of this group grows in the general community, the Jewish people should take notice. When catering exclusively to money and power Chabad promotes and reinforces the worst antisemitic stereotypes. They also betray the “rank and file” by serving the sole interest of the moneyed and politically connected class. This is as much of a trap as Jew serving Polish landlords before the upraising of Bogdan Chmelnizky or Jews in the prewar Europe taking the blame for the inherent capitalist inequalities.

Yet, a bigger trap is the spiritual decay. The foundational assumption that the young and the old could be indoctrinated and brainwashed to be numb and immune to the deep institutional corruption.