The Rebbe & World Leaders

The Rebbe's guidance to presidents, including Ford and Reagan.

As we walked home for the festive holiday meal, the young man exclaimed, “This Rosh Hashanah has changed my life!”

In 1989, someone suggested that I visit Poland, my birthplace, where sixty members of my family were murdered.

South African Jewry marked the 15th anniversary of the passing of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, with a glimpse into the Rebbe’s work on behalf of education, a focus that extended into the corridors of power in Washington, D.C.

The Rebbe said was, “It is enough that you were working with the dead, now you need to work with the living!”

Rabbi Zev Segal, communal leader and Jewish activist, describes how the Rebbe approached Jewish life after the holocaust.

U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.), the first African-American woman elected to Congress, helped expand federal food supplement programs at the urging of the Rebbe.

The former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel describes his meetings with the Rebbe, and explains why the Rebbe, an Ashkenazic rabbi, assisted all Jews.

How I saved lives with the Rebbe's precious advice in what became the most important story of my life.

You want to change the world? Start by changing yourself.

There are differences. We don't focus on the differences. We focus on what we have in common.

A glimpse at the relationship between the Rebbe and Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, "the Rav."

How could you mend a fracture so deep, such a hole in the heart of humanity? ... Would it be possible to search out every Jew in love as Jews had once been searched out and hunted down in hate?

He was a world-famous figure, I was an anonymous student from 3000 miles away. Quickly it became clear to me that he believed in me more than I believed in myself

The Rebbe immediately corrected me, "We cannot label anyone as being 'far.' Who are we to determine who is far and who is near? They are all close to G-d!"

Often the secretary would ring, and I would rise to leave because I knew there were people waiting. But the Rebbe would keep me back saying, "What? We are talking about the community."

My partner handed the Rebbe a note he'd prepared with the name of his sickly relative and some details about her condition. As the Rebbe read the details, his face transformed before our eyes; from welcoming and jovial to somber and serious.

My father-in-law turned to the Rebbe and said, "If the Rebbe would come to Israel, it would do so much good for those living there."

The Rebbe did something absolutely extraordinary; he said to himself: if the Nazis searched out every Jew in hate, we will search out every Jew in love.

As he waited, there were a few people in the study hall at the time who realized that he was a chassid, and so they decided to harass him. They started asking him pointed questions on Talmudic topics—did he know this topic, and what did he have to say about it, and so forth.