Gauging the State of Chabad-Lubavitch: The Evidence from their 19 Kislev Holiday

 The Chabad-Lubavitch faith, a Chasidic sect, is well-known due to their extensive PR (public relations) campaigns and media presence over many years. Due to their outsized, disproportionate, and one might say incessant, PR, they are at times more known and recognized than other religious groups who are larger and more important than them, but are less engaged in such self-promotion. Too many naive and ignorant people even think that they represent mainstream Orthodox Judaism, or mainstream Chasidism, a great misconception encouraged and promoted by them.

But how large and strong actually are they, beyond the noise and publicity they generate?

A Measuring Stick

A major (perhaps the main) holiday in the Chabad-Lubavitch faith (I saw recently somewhere that they have twenty two holidays of their own, commemorating things like their Rebbes being released from prison, as well as their birthdays, wedding, and death anniversaries, but some are stressed more than others) is the nineteenth day of the Jewish month of Kislev, aka Yud Tes Kislev, which they refer to as Rosh Hashanah LaChasidus, the new year of Hasidism. Through examination of reports of celebrations of it this past week, we can, with Hashem's help, get an idea of their actual strength, which will take us beyond the fluff and puff of their publicity to the actual reality of things.

Let us look at a few examples -

1) Kfar Chabad - the Chabad-Lubavitch center in ארץ ישראל, this town holds a large celebration then. Looking at the photos, there seem to be hundreds in attendance, seemingly in the low hundreds. What does a Lubavitcher website report, however? They claim that there were thousands there. Clearly untrue and wildly exaggerated, based on the posted photos there.

2) Bnei Brak - in this ultra-orthodox center, there seem to be less than one hundred in attendance at their event, which is very underwhelming turnout, that speaks very loudly in terms of showing how marginal the Chabad-Lubavitch faith is there. Nevertheless, the Chabad website claims that six hundred joined it. Now I know that many in Chabad-Lubavitch are weak in secular studies, but how does one hundred become six hundred? It seems to be a deliberate deception, an attempt to inflate their importance.

3) Manchester - examination of photos seems to show perhaps 50-60 in attendance. A Chabad website, however, claims that two hundred were there.

3) Lakewood - A sizable event took place on Motzei Shabbos. The photographs show a crowd of perhaps a hundred, if that. A Lubavitch website however, claims that there were hundreds there, clearly not in accordance with what their photos show. Furthermore, the audience comprised many shtreimel wearers from other Chasidic groups, as well as visiting Lubavitchers. So it seems that non-Hasidic Litvish types were almost totally absent.

4) Y.U. - A Chabad website claims that over 250 YU students participated there. Examination of photos and video coverage, however, shows a much smaller number, perhaps around fifty (while there are more people than that, many are visiting Lubavitchers, rather than YU students, as evident by their different appearance. As reported at a different Lubavitch website, which gives a figure of thirty five visiting Lubavitcher bochurim that took part).

5) Brooklyn - An event in the Marine Park vicinity attracted perhaps 100-150 people, based on what the photographic evidence shows. However, a major Chabad website claims that over one thousand people were there, a giant exaggeration, a major untruth. 

Conclusions

1) Overwhelmingly, the greater Jewish community, the greater Orthodox Jewish community, and even the greater Chasidic community, does not recognize and celebrate this Chabad-Lubavitch holiday.

2) Some members of the neo-Chasidic community, springing from Modern Orthodoxy, with leaders such as Rebbe Moshe Weinberger of Yeshiva University, Aish Kodesh Rebbe of Woodmere, NY, Rebbe Judah Mischel of Camp HASC and NCSY, and Rebbe Moshe Tzvi Weinberg and Rebbe Hershel Reichman of YU, do celebrate it. No major surprise there, as we have written in the past of the closeness of this group to Chabad-Lubavitch.

3) The great efforts by Chabad-Lubavitch to promote this holiday of their faith by presenting events at sizable venues with leading singers, offering free music, food, and drink, have had only limited success in attracting new people to it. Many, if not most, of the new attendees are from the Neo-Chasidic group, Dati-Leumi or Modern Orthodox communities, and to a lesser extent Sephardim. There are grounds to assume that many of them are drawn more by the free entertainment, food, and drink, rather than ideological reasons. 

Bottom line - Chabad-Lubavitch is a lot less than many seem to think, and what they would like you to believe. By massive PR and frequent use of outright exaggeration and deception, they try to make themselves seem larger and more powerful than they actually are.

From the above we can and should extrapolate to Chabad overall, their organizations and activities in general, and not be foolish consumers who purchase the proverbial Brooklyn Bridge from them. Since they have been based in Brooklyn, NY for so many years they may have become experts in selling it to the unsuspecting and naive, but those of us with more knowledge need to be more wary of them, and warn others as well.

May light triumph over darkness, and truth win out over deception.

א פרייליכען חנוכה