Agudas Chassidei Chabad (Hebrew:אַגּוּדַת חַסִּידֵי חַבָּ"ד ʔagudat ḥasidē ḥabad. lit.'Association of the pious ones of Chabad') is the umbrella organization for the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The chairman of the executive committee is Rabbi Abraham Shemtov.
History
Agudas Chasidei Chabad was established by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn in 1923. The founding meeting was in the early spring (27 Nisan), attended by about ten Lubavitcher Chassidim.
In 1940, upon his arrival in the United States, Schneersohn became president and in 1941, when his is son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, arrived he appointed him executive chairman.[1][2][3]
After Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn died in 1950, his son-in-law succeeded him as President of Agudas Chassidei Chabad.[4]
Ownership of 770 Eastern Parkway
In 2010, a New York judge ruled in favor of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, deciding over an ownership dispute between the organization and the Gabbayim of the synagogue housed at 770 Eastern Parkway. The court ordered the Gabbayim to deliver possession of the premises of 770 Eastern Parkway to Agudas Chasidei Chabad.[5]
During World War II, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak was forced to flee from the USSR and went to Poland. He was given permission by the Soviet government to take many of his religious texts from his library with him. In March 1940, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak managed to escape Europe for the United States, but was forced to leave his library behind. In the 1970s, many of the texts were recovered in Poland and were returned to Chabad. Today, the chief librarian is Rabbi Shalom Dovber Levine and contains over 250,000 books.[6][7]
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