Thread by @TzviAlperowitz

Just read that Eliezer Ben Yehuda—the founder of modern Hebrew—was born to a Chabad Chassidic family. Both his wives (sisters Devora and Hemda), also grew up in a Chabad family.

Added to the list of rather unexpected Jewish figures who grew up in Chabad.

Perhaps one of the more unusual figures in this list is Solomon Schechter, the founder of American Conservative Judaism.

Solomon grew up in a Chabad family in Romania. His Hebrew name was Shneur Zalman and was named after the Alter Rebbe of Chabad.

Then you got Yitzchak Sadeh. Yitzchak was the commander of the Palmach (elite force of the Haganah) and a founder of the IDF.

Yitzchak’s mother was a daughter of the Tzemach Tzedek’s chossid, Reb Shneur Zalman Fradkin. R SZ is widely known as the Toras Chesed & the Lubliner Gaon

*on this list

An obvious member of this list is Israel’s third president, Zalman Shazar.

Like Schechter, Shazar was named after the Alter Rebbe. But unlike Schechter, Shazar was a Chossid until his last day.

Here he’s embraced by the Rebbe in 1966. I believe he’s the only one to have been.

The philosopher, writer, and thinker, Hillel Zeitlin, was born into a Chabad family and educated by Chabad teachers.

After reaching adulthood, he left the fold and secularized only to become a Baal Teshuva in his later years.

In 1938, he published articles on Chabad thought.

While he didn’t grow up in a Chabad family, Semyon Dimanstein studied in Lubavitch. The yeshiva’s director was the Frierdiker Rebbe RYY.

In a horrible twist, Semyon became the director of the the Soviet communist party Yevsektsiya, whose primary target was the Frierdiker Rebbe…

The famed poet, Ahad Ha’am, was born Asher Ginsburg into a Chassidic—but non-Chabad—family.

While Ahad Ha’am himself didn’t have Chabad ancestry, his wife was a great granddaughter of the Tzemach Tzedek and a niece of the Rebbe Rashab.

h/t @Mottel @ezalmanov

Israeli Poet, Avraham Shlonsky, attended the same Cheder as the Rebbe in Yekatrinoslav (Dnieper), where they were childhood friends.

Shlonsky, was named after his great grandfather, the Chossid R Avraham David Lavut, which made him second cousins once removed with the Rebbe.

Another famed Israeli poet, Zelda, also grew up in a Chabad family, and was a first cousin of the Rebbe.

Zelda Mishkovsky was a daughter of R Sholom Schneerson, who was a brother of the Rebbe’s father Reb Levi Yitzchok.

There are some gorgeous letters between them. Hope to post

On the other side of the spectrum, scholar R Dovid Tzvi Heilman, was also born into a Chabad family.

RDT was a grandson of the famed Chossid Reb Dovid Tzvi Chein, who passed away shortly before RDT was born.

R Heilman left Chabad and was famously critical of the Cherson Geniza.

Interestingly this makes R Heilman first cousins with Zelda, whose mother was also a daughter of Reb Dovid Tzvi Chein! 🤯