Abraham Shemtov
Encyclopedia
Chabad-Lubavitch
Chabad-Lubavitch is a Chasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism. One of the world's larger and best-known Chasidic movements, its official headquarters is in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York...
Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
who was one of the closest confidants of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe among his followers, was a prominent Hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He was fifth in a direct paternal line to the third Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel...
.
He is the Chairman of the board of Agudas Chasidei Chabad
Agudas Chasidei Chabad
Agudas Chassidei Chabad is the umbrella organization for the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement. It administers three of the main Lubavitch offices: Machneh Israel, Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, and the Kehot Publication Society...
, the movement's umbrella organization, and was entrusted by the Rebbe with various missions, among them as the movement's envoy to the White House and Capitol Hill.
He is the founding national director of American Friends of Lubavitch, chairman of the executive board of Associated Bais Rivka
Bais Rivka
Bais Rivka is a network of Beis Yaakov-type private girls' schools affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement....
Schools for girls in New York and the director of Lubavitch activities in Greater Philadelphia, PA, and director of the first Camp Gan Israel in Parksville, NY.
Early life
Abraham Isaac Shemtov was born February 16, 1937, in Moscow, Russia, to a distinguished Chassidic family. His father, Rabbi Benzion Shemtov was a staunch adherent of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Jewish activist. Abraham Shemtov grew up in the city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and studied there in an underground Jewish school in the Soviet years.He did his undergraduate and graduate work at the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva, Brooklyn, NY, and was ordained in 1960.
DC lobbying
Often called the "Rebbe's ambassador to DC", Shemtov developed extensive connections and friendships in Washington. He regularly leads Chabad-Lubavitch delegations to the White House and played a pivotal role in the relationships formed between Schneerson and U.S. Presidents Richard NixonRichard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
, Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, and Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
On February 28, 1984, Shemtov was appointed by President Reagan as one of the five members of the National Advisory Council on Adult Education.
Under Shemtov's influence, the U.S. senate declared the Education and Sharing Day
Education and Sharing day
Education and Sharing Day is a day made by the United States Congress in honor of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the Lubavitcher Rebbe's efforts for education and sharing for Jews and non-Jews alike. During his lifetime the Rabbi opened scores of centers of education called "Chabad Houses"...
, U.S.A., on Schneerson's Hebrew birthday. The proclamation is signed yearly by the President of the United States of America.
In addition, Shemtov had successfully lobbied for a Congressional Gold Medal given to Rabbi Schneerson in September 1995 after his death on June 12, 1994, at 92. At a White House ceremony, Shemtov received the award on behalf of the Rebbe.
Schneerson was the first religious leader ever awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Polish archive
During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks confiscated the fifth Rebbe's sizable book collection and to this day, it is still in the hands of the Russian government, housed in the main library in Moscow. When the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe fled Nazi-occupied Warsaw in 1939 for the United States, the library was confiscated.Upon revealing the location of manuscripts at the government-controlled Yiddisher Historic Institute in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Shemtov was asked to help assist Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky in pursuing its release. Through the help of the U.S. State Department, Shemtov spent three years en route Europe - U.S. in negotiation with the communist Polish government.
At the end of 1977 the books were placed in the Library of Agudas Chassidei Chabad.
Chanukah phenomenon
Shemtov is credited for erecting the first public Chanukah menorah in the United States. This practice, which started out as a folksy phenomenon generating legal controversy, has since become a natural part of the public holiday scene in thousands of cities across the globe. Shemtov kindled a small menorah at the foot of the Liberty Bell at Independence Hall in Philadelphia In 1974.A similar menorah is set up by Shemtov on the White House lawn, famously being called by President Reagan "the National Menorah."
In 1984, on the eve of Hanukkah, Shemtov hosted a visit to the White House by a delegation of rabbis from "The American Friends of Lubavitch." The group recounted that they were surprised that, when the time had come for them to leave, the President invited them to remain a little longer, so that he could tell them a story about a rabbi serving as a Navy chaplain. He shared with them the story of Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff
Arnold Resnicoff
Arnold E. Resnicoff is an American Conservative rabbi, a decorated retired military officer and military chaplain, and a consultant on leadership, values, and interreligious affairs to military and civilian leaders...
, whose kippa, skullcap, had to be discarded after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
The Beirut Barracks Bombing occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen...
, because it was covered in blood after being used to wipe the faces of wounded Marines, and so a Catholic chaplain tore a piece of his camouflage uniform off, to be used as a temporary replacement for the kippa. The President asked the group about the tradition for Jewish men to cover their heads, and Shemtov replied, "Mr. President, the kippa to us is a sign of reverence." A colleague in the group, Rabbi Feller, continued, "We place the kippa on the very highest point of our being -- on our head, the vessel of our intellect -- to tell ourselves and the world that there is something which is above man's intellect -- the infinite Wisdom of G-d." Reagan later officially thanked the group in an official February 12, 1985, White House letter to Shemtov, Shemtov, ending with the prayer: "May the light of the menorah always be a source of strength and inspiration to the Jewish people and to all mankind."
Messianism
In regard to the state of Chabad-Lubavitch after the passing of Rabbi Schneerson and the activities of Messianism, Shemtov has said: "Lubavitch went through a very difficult period, and turmoil, and what you are seeing now is the settling of the dust, and people begin to realize what are we really there for.”Family
Shemtov is married to Batsheva Shemtov (née Lazaroff), an educator and community activist. They have six children.- Eliezer Shemtov, rabbi and director of Beit Jabad del Uruguay in Montevideo, Uruguay. Author of book on Intermarriage, titled: Dear Rabbi, Why Can't I Marry Her?
- Menachem Mendel Shemtov, M.D., Cornell Urology Physician in New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
- Goldie Avtzon, co-director of Chabad of Hong Kong, China
- Yudy Shemtov, rabbi and executive director of Lubavitch of Bucks County in Newtown, PA
- Levi Shemtov, rabbi and director of American Friends of Lubavitch in Washington, DC
- Shimon Shemtov, filmmaker and frequent collaborator of Jan ŠvankmajerJan ŠvankmajerJan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others.- Life and career :Jan...
Ronald Perelman
Industrialist Ronald O. Perelman, chairman and chief executive officer of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, is a friend and disciple of Rabbi Shemtov. They have met in Shemtov's Lubavitcher Center in Philadelphia and have deeply connected. Ever since, Perelman has attended prayers in synagogues, kept Kosher and the Shabbath. Shemtov regularly commutes from Philadelphia to the financier's East 63rd Street residence in New York City. "We discuss lessons from the Bible. It's a central dimension of his life", Shemtov has told the Washington Post.Shemtov has accompanied Perelman in his meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe at the Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn. Showing the merchant rare praise, the Rebbe has called him "my partner" in charitable activities.
Perelman generously donates to Shemtov and Lubavitch causes. He is National Chairman of American Friends of Lubavitch and chief benefactor of Campus Chomesh - home of Associated Beth Rivkah Girls Schools, named after Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, wife of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
On June 21, 2006, Shemtov and Perelman established a fund under the auspices of Agudas Chassidei Chabad to financially assist new Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries. “You are terribly important to us as Jews, to us as parents, and to us that know the importance of keeping Judaism alive,” Perelman has told the grantees - 20 enthusiastic Lubavitch couples.