Editing Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (section)

== 1940: Settling in the United States ==
Following [[Nazi Germany]]'s attack against Poland in 1939, Schneersohn refused to leave Warsaw. The government of the United States of America, which was still neutral, used its diplomatic relations to convince Nazi Germany to rescue Schneersohn from the war zone in German-occupied Poland.<ref name="Rigg, Bryan Mark 2006">Rigg, Bryan Mark, ''Rescued from the Reich: How One of Hitler's Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe'' (Yale University Press 2006)</ref> He remained in the city during the bombardments and its capitulation to Nazi Germany. He gave the full support of his organizations to assist as many Jews as possible to flee the invading armies. With the intercession of the [[United States Department of State]] in Washington, DC and with the lobbying of many Jewish leaders, such as [[Jacob Rutstein]], on behalf of the Rebbe (and, reputedly, also with the help of Admiral [[Wilhelm Canaris]],<ref>Altein, R, Zaklikofsky, E, Jacobson, I: "Out of the Inferno: The Efforts That Led to the Rescue of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch from War Torn Europe in 1939–40", p. 160. Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, 2002 {{ISBN|0-8266-0683-0}}</ref> the head of the [[Abwehr]]), he was finally granted diplomatic immunity and given safe passage to go via Berlin to [[Riga]], Latvia, where the Rebbe was a citizen and which was still free. From Riga, the Rebbe left for America by way of Sweden with his wife, his mother Shterna Sarah, [[Shemaryahu Gurary]], his wife Chana and son [[Barry Gurary|Berka]], [[Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov]] and his wife, and [[Nissan Mindel]]. They traveled in a small plane to Sweden since boats were no longer permitted out of Riga, landing in [[Stockholm]], and then took a boat to [[Gothenburg]]. There, they boarded the [[SS Drottningholm|''Drottningholm'']] which sailed to America,<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Mindel|first=Nissan|author-link=Nissan Mindel|date=2 December 2015|title=My Life and Times|magazine=[[Ami (magazine)|Ami]]|issue=245|page=100}}</ref> arriving in New York City on 19 March 1940,<ref>[http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/livingtorah_cdo/aid/363468/jewish/The-Previous-Rebbes-Arrival-to-America.htm See video] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204092159/http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/livingtorah_cdo/aid/363468/jewish/The-Previous-Rebbes-Arrival-to-America.htm |date=4 December 2008 }}.</ref> and where they stayed at Manhattan’s [[The Greystone|Greystone Hotel]].<ref>''[[Ami Magazine]]''. No. 245. p. 101.</ref> Major {{ill|Ernst Bloch (Offizier)|lt=Ernst Bloch|de|Ernst Bloch (Offizier)}}, a decorated German army officer of Jewish descent, was put in command of a group which included Sgt. Klaus Schenk, a [[half-Jew]] and Pvt. Johannes Hamburger, a quarter-Jew assigned to locate the Rebbe in Poland and escort him safely to freedom.<ref name="Rigg, Bryan Mark 2006"/> They wound up saving not only the Rebbe, but also over a dozen Hasidic Jews in the Rebbe's family or associated with him.<ref name="Rigg, Bryan Mark 2006"/>

[[Image: FrierdigerRebbePassportPic.jpg |thumb|right|200px|Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn Passport Picture (1933)]]

Working with the government and the contacts Schneersohn had with the US State Department, Chabad was able to save his son-in-law (and future successor) Menachem Mendel Schneerson from Vichy France in 1941 before the borders were closed down.<ref>Friedman, Menachem, and Heilman, Samuel, The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Princeton, 2010; Bryan Mark Rigg, The Rabbi Saved by Hitler's Soldiers, Kansas, 2016.</ref>
When Schneersohn came to America (he was the first major Chasidic leader to move permanently to the United States<ref>"Schneerson, Yoseph Yitzchak", in Moshe D. Sherman, ''Orthodox Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook'' (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1996), p. 189.</ref>) two of his chassidim came to him, and said not to start up all the activities in which Lubavitch had engaged in Europe, because "America is different." To avoid disappointment, they advised him not even to try. Schneersohn wrote, "Out of my eyes came boiling tears", and undeterred, the next day he started the first Lubavitcher Yeshiva in America, declaring that "America is no different."<ref>[http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/livingtorah_cdo/aid/363467/jewish/America-is-no-Different.htm See video] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207054945/http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/livingtorah_cdo/aid/363467/jewish/America-is-no-Different.htm |date=7 December 2008 }}.</ref> In 1949, Schneersohn became a U.S. citizen.<ref>The Previous Rebbe Accepts US Citizenship - Program One Hundred Twenty Eight - Living Torah. Chabad.org. 17 March 1949; "Out of the Inferno," Reviewed by Efraim Zuroff, The Jerusalem Post, 15 December 2002; Bryan Mark Rigg, The Rabbi Saved by Hitler's Soldiers, Kansas, 2016.</ref>

[[Image: הרב שמריהו גוראריה לצד חותנו הרייצ.jpg |thumb|right|200px|Left to right: [[Shemaryahu Gurary]], [[Yosef Yitzhak Schneersohn]], and [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]] (1943)]]

Following Schneerson's escape from Nazi occupied Poland and his settlement in New York City, he issued a call for repentance, stating ''L'alter l'tshuva, l'alter l'geula'' ("speedy repentance brings a speedy redemption"). This campaign was opposed by rabbis [[Avraham Kalmanowitz]] and [[Aaron Kotler]] of the ''[[Vaad Hatzalah]]''. In return, Schneersohn was critical of the efforts of rabbis Kalmanowitz and Kotler based on the suspicion that Kalmanowitz and Kotler were discriminating in their use of funds, placing their yeshivas before all else, and that the [[Mizrachi (religious Zionism)|Mizrachi]] and [[Union of Orthodox Rabbis|Agudas Harabonim]] withdrew their support of the Vaad after they discovered this fact.<ref>Rigg, Bryan Mark. ''Rescued from the Reich''. Cambridge University Press. 2005.</ref>