The Chabad-Lubav­itch move­ment, one of the world’s best-known Hasidic groups, is dri­ven by the belief that we are on the verge of the mes­sian­ic age. One man is most rec­og­nized for the movement’s suc­cess: the sev­enth and last Lubav­itch­er rebbe, Men­achem Mendel Schneer­son (1902 – 1994), believed by many of his fol­low­ers to be the Mes­si­ah.

While hope of redemp­tion has sus­tained the Jew­ish peo­ple through exile and per­se­cu­tion, it has also upend­ed Jew­ish soci­ety with its apoc­a­lyp­tic and anar­chic ten­den­cies. So it is not sur­pris­ing that Schneerson’s mes­sian­ic fer­vor made him one of the most con­tro­ver­sial rab­binic lead­ers of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. How did he revi­tal­ize a cen­turies-old Hasidic move­ment, con­struct an out­reach empire of unprece­dent­ed scope, and earn the admi­ra­tion and con­dem­na­tion of polit­i­cal, com­mu­nal, and reli­gious lead­ers in Amer­i­ca and abroad?

Ezra Glinter’s deeply researched account is the first biog­ra­phy of Schneer­son to com­bine a non­par­ti­san view of his life, work, and impact with an insider’s under­stand­ing of the ide­ol­o­gy that drove him, and which con­tin­ues to inspire the Chabad-Lubav­itch move­ment today.