The Forward today reports on a lawsuit pending in a New York trial court between two groups of Chabad leaders who are fighting for control of the synagogue in Chabad's headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. While nominally the suit is about whether the organization that owns the building, Agudas Chassidei Chabad, or a group of leaders -- gabbais-- elected from the local Chabad community, will have control over the synagogue in the basement of the Rebbe's former residence and the building next door, in fact more is at stake. At issue is a dispute within Chabad over whether the Hasidic movement’s grand rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994, may be referred to publicly as the Messiah.
Agudas Chassidei Chabad asserted its authority over the synagogue in which the Rebbe used to preach after a group of youngsters who believe that Schneerson is the living Messiah tore out a plaque that had recently been installed in the synagogue by Chabad's international leaders. The youths were angry because the plaque referred to Schneerson with a Hebrew acronym used for the dead.
This week a New York judge ordered the case to trial, finding that he was unable to rule for either side based on the pleadings alone. In the many affidavits filed in the case so far, it appears that most Chabad leaders privately believe that the rebbe was the Messiah. They disagree though over whether he died to return in the future or just disappeared for a time. The lawsuit though reflects a different split in the movement -- whether to discuss the views of Schneerson as the Messiah publicly for fear of frightening away many unaffiliated Jews who support Chabad.
