Levi Yitzchak Schneerson
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Image:Rebbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson.jpg Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, (1878-1944), was a Chabad Hasidic rabbi in Yekatrinoslav, Ukraine. He was the father of the seventh and last Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson was born in 1878 in the town of Podrovnah (near Gomel) to his parents, Rabbi Baruch Schneur and Rebbetzin Zelda Rachel Schneerson. His great-great grandfather was the third Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn of Lubavitch.
In 1900, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak married Rebbetzin Chana Yanovski, whose father, Rabbi Meir Shlomo, was the Rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Nikolaiev. In 1902, their eldest son, Menachem Mendel was born. He was later to become the Rebbe of Lubavitch.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak lived in Nikolaiev until 1909, when he was appointed to serve as the Rabbi of Yekatrinoslav. In 1939 he was arrested by the communist regime for his fearless stance against the Party's efforts to eradicate Jewish learning and practice in the Soviet Union. After more than a year of torture and interrogations in Stalin's prisons, he was sentenced to exile to the interior of Russia. There he died in 1944.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was a distinguished Kabbalist. Some of his writings have been published under the name Likutei Levi Yitschok. Most of it, however, was burned or confiscated by the Soviet authorities, and have yet to be returned to the Chabad movement.
