[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 58 (Thursday, March 30, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S1087]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REMEMBERING RABBI MENACHEM M. SCHNEERSON

 Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, on April 2, we recognize the life 
and leadership of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, a global spiritual 
leader known universally as the Rebbe and head of the Chabad-Lubavitch 
movement.
  The Rebbe was born in 1902 and lived through the darkest periods of 
history, the evils of Russian communism and the horrors of Nazi 
Germany. In 1941, the Rebbe and his wife Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka arrived 
safely on the shores of the United States. He volunteered at the 
Brooklyn Navy Yard using his engineering skills to assist our Nation 
during World War II and worked tirelessly to rebuild and guide after 
the Holocaust.
  During those difficult years, the Rebbe established a program that 
arranged for rabbinical students to travel across the country to visit 
Jewish farmers, U.S. servicemembers, and others isolated from their 
families or communities. This included locations such as the 335th Army 
Air Force Base Unit in Sioux Falls, Ellsworth Air Force Base, and 
communities across South Dakota. This program still exists today, and 
these rabbinical students sent by the Rebbe are often the only 
connection many local Jews have with their faith.
  Under the Rebbe's leadership, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement has 
become the world's largest Jewish educational organization with more 
than 3,500 permanent centers in all 50 States, including in my home 
State of South Dakota, and in 109 countries around the world. It is 
thanks to the Rebbe's vision that our State has its first rabbi in 
almost 40 years with the establishment of the Chabad Jewish Center of 
South Dakota.
  The Rebbe extolled America's unique role as a superpower and had 
meaningful relationships with several of our Nation's leaders who saw 
him as the moral guide of so many. For the Rebbe, America was a beacon 
of light of historic proportions to be utilized in influencing the 
moral betterment of all humanity. He urged us all to become ambassadors 
for goodness and kindness and explained that education must not be 
limited to the tools needed for making a good living, but rather focus 
on the ethics, morals, and values that have always been the basis of 
any decent society.
  For more than four decades, every U.S. President has declared the 
annual observance of Education and Sharing Day in honor of the 
anniversary of the Rebbe's birth, in recognition of his contributions 
to the betterment of education for all people. In 1995, he was awarded 
the Congressional Gold Medal for his contributions toward education, 
morality, and acts of charity.
  Education and Sharing Day represents an excellent opportunity for us 
to reflect on the Rebbe's vision and leadership and to embrace his 
teachings that starting with moral education, we each do our part to 
increase in goodness and kindness.

                          ____________________