Shemaryahu Gurary
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Rabbi Shemaryahu Gourary, also known by his Hebrew initials Rashag, (1898-1989) was an Orthodox rabbi belonging to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. His father was Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gurary. He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (1880- 1950), the sixth Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, known as Rebbe Rayatz. He married Chana, the older daughter of Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, and thus was the brother-in-law of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe (whose wife Chaya Mushka Schneerson was also the daughter of Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn). He worked with his father-in-law in both Russia and Poland and then arrived in the U.S. in 1940.
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[edit] Activities
In 1931, the Rebbe Rayatz planed to expand the network of Chabad yeshivos in Vohlin Ukraine. R’ Zalman Gurary traveled to check out the yeshivos in various cities in Vohlin, and to found new yeshivos.
Rabbi Gurary was the director of Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in Warsaw. He was responsible for giving Talmudic lectures and the hiring of other rabbis. As head of the Yeshiva, he was close to the Rebeb Rayatz and many of the latter's letter's were addressed to him. He was responsible for bringing quality Lithuanian Roshei Yeshiva to Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in Brooklyn such as Rav Yisroel Zev Gustman.
He was also responsible for bringing to press many of Rebbe Rayatz's historical publications. He also claimed credit for editing the controversial Hatamim volumes, which claimed to have hidden writings from the Kherson Genizah. He remained on the board of Kehot Publication Society his whole life. From the 1920s until the death of the Rebbe Rayatz, he was the right hand man of the Rebbe Rayatz, traveling with him and carrying out his projects.
He dressed as a potential Rebbe and comported himself as a potential Rebbe. Upon the death of his father-in-law in 1950, he was considered to be a possible candidate to succeed him. Indeed, he vied to be Rebbe for a full 3 years, but he finally ceded his position to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in 1953 and even became the latter's follower.
Upon his rejection as the new Rebbe, he entered business and did a lot of traveling. The Rebbe Menachem Mendel considered the Rashag his foreign ambassador. The Rebbe claimed that he had this role since he accompanied the Rebbe Rayatz to Israel in 1929. In this capacity he traveled to Brazil and elsewhere in South America.
He also worked to develop Crown Heights into a Lubavitch enclave by overseeing the building of the necessary infrastructure.
In 2005, land in Israel was discovered in his name. [citation needed]
[edit] See also
- Barry Gurary, son
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Avrum M. Ehrlich, Messiah of Brooklyn: Understanding Lubavitch Hasidism Past and Present
- Avrum M. Ehrlich, Leadership in the HaBaD Movement
- Shaul Shimon Deutsch, Larger than Life
- On the Kherson genizah, see Yizhak Refael, Sinai 81 ( 1977 ), pp . 129 - 150.
