Editing Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (section)

== Early life ==
Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn was born in [[Lyubavichi, Rudnyansky District, Smolensk Oblast|Lyubavichi]], Mogilev Governorate<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->, Russian Empire<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance --> (present-day [[Smolensk Oblast]], Russia<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->), the only son of [[Sholom Dovber Schneersohn]] (the ''Rebbe Rashab''), the fifth [[Rebbe]] of [[Chabad]]. He was appointed as his father's personal secretary at the age of 15; in that year, he represented his father in the conference of communal leaders in [[Kaunas|Kovno]]. The following year (1896), he participated in the [[Vilna]] Conference, where rabbis and community leaders discussed issues such as: genuine Jewish education; permission for Jewish children not to attend public school on [[Shabbat]]; and the creation of a united Jewish organization for the purpose of strengthening Judaism. He participated in this conference again in 1908.<ref name="four">The Four Worlds, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, Kehot, 2006, pp. 87–90. {{ISBN|0-8266-0462-5}}</ref>

On 13 [[Elul]] 5657 (1897), at the age of 17, he married his second cousin, Nechama Dina Schneersohn, daughter of Rabbi Avraham Schneerson of [[Chișinău]], son of Rabbi Yisroel Noach of [[Nizhyn]], son of Rabbi [[Menachem Mendel Schneersohn]], the Tzemach Tzedek.<ref name="four"/>

In 1898, he was appointed head of the [[Tomchei Temimim]] yeshiva network.<ref name="four"/>

In 1901, with financial support from Yaakov and Eliezer Poliakoff he opened spinning and weaving mills in [[Dubrovno]] and [[Mahilyow]] and established a [[yeshiva]] in [[Bukhara]].<ref name="four"/><ref name="wer">''Encyclopedia of Hasidism, entry: Schneersohn, Joseph Isaac''. Naftali Lowenthal. Aronson, London 1996. {{ISBN|1-56821-123-6}}</ref>

As he matured, he campaigned for the rights of Jews by appearing before the [[Czar]]ist authorities in [[Saint Petersburg]] and Moscow. During the [[Russo-Japanese War]] of 1904 he sought relief for Jewish conscripts in the [[Russian army]] by sending them [[kosher]] food and supplies in the [[Russian Far East]].<ref name="wer"/> In 1905, he participated in organizing a fund to provide [[Passover]] needs for troops in the Far East.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

With rising [[antisemitism]] and [[pogrom]]s against Jews, in 1906 he traveled with other prominent rabbis to seek help from [[Western European]] governments, especially [[German Empire|Germany]] and the [[Netherlands]], and persuaded bankers there to use their influence to stop pogroms.<ref name="four"/><ref name="wer"/>

He was arrested four times between 1902 and 1911 by the [[Czarist]] police because of his activism, but was released each time.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Upon the death of his father, Rabbi [[Sholom Dovber Schneersohn]] (''"Rashab"''), in 1920, Schneerson became the sixth Rebbe of [[Chabad]].