Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (April 5, 1902 – June 12, 1994), known to many as the Rebbe, was a Russian-born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and the last Lubavitcher Rebbe. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century. As leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he "took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the Holocaust and turned it into one of the most influential and controversial forces in world Jewry," with an international network of over 3000 educational and social centers. The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled and synagogues. Schneerson's published teachings fill more than 300 volumes and he is noted for his contributions to Jewish continuity and religious thought, as well as his wide-ranging contributions to traditional Torah scholarship. He is recognized as the pioneer of Jewish outreach. In 1978, the U.S. Congress designated Schneerson's birthday as the national Education Day U.S.A., honoring his role in establishing the Department of Education as an independent cabinet-level department. In 1994, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his "outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity."