First Proclamation: 26 May 1941

Yosef Yitshak Schneersohn was the son of the Chabad rabbi Sholom Dovber and became the head of the Lubavitch yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in 1898. After his father’s death in 1920, he took on the position of rebbe, struggling to maintain a network of Chabad institutions, ranging from schools to kosher food banks. He was arrested by Stalin’s regime in 1927 and was tortured and exiled. In 1940, following the Nazi invasion of Poland, Schneersohn arrived in New York, where he continued his work of organizational growth through religious and social networks and institutions. Schneersohn’s son-in-law, Menachem Mendel, became his successor as the Lubavitcher Rebbe.