Shemaryahu Gurary - Biography

Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary, also known by his Hebrew initials as The 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 Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn (1880- 1950), known as Rebbe Rayatz, the sixth Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. He married Chana Gurary, the older daughter of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok, and was thus the brother-in-law of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe (whose wife Chaya Mushka Schneerson was also the daughter of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok). He worked with his father-in-law in communal service in both Russia and Poland and then arrived in the U.S. in 1940, where he continued this work until his death.

Character

Rabbi Gurary had a comprehensive knowledge of Chassidic philosophy and was a devoted follower of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn wrote very highly of Rabbi Gurary:

Activities

In 1931, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn planned to expand the network of Chabad Yeshivas, known as Tomchei Temimim, in Vohlin, Ukraine. Rabbi Gurary travelled to investigate the yeshivas in various cities in Vohlin, and to found new yeshivas.

Rabbi Gurary was the director of Tomchei Temimim in Warsaw. He was responsible for delivering Talmudic lectures and hiring other rabbis. As head of the Yeshiva, he was close to the Schneersohn and many of the latter's letters were addressed to him. He was responsible for bringing quality Lithuanian Roshei Yeshiva to Tomchei Temimim in Brooklyn such as Rav Yisroel Zev Gustman.

He remained on the board of Kehot Publication Society his whole life. From the 1920s until the death of Schneersohn, he was the right hand man of the Rebbe Rayatz, traveling with him and carrying out his projects.

. Upon the death of his father-in-law in 1950, he was considered to be a possible candidate to succeed him. Indeed, he shared the leadership for a year, but he finally ceded his position to Rabbi Menachem Mendel after being sidelined.

He dedicated himself to fundraising to support the central Lubavitch Yeshiva of which he was director and did a lot of traveling. In this capacity he traveled to Brazil and elsewhere in South America.

He is buried near the gravesite of his father-in-law.

Controversies surrounding his son

Barry Gurary (Sholom Dovber Gurary) (b. in Rostov-on-Don, Russia November 2, 1923, d. Montclair, New Jersey, United States March 3, 2005) was the only son of Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary and Rebbetzin Chana Gurary, the elder daughter of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn. Barry Gurary was an ordained non-practicing Orthodox rabbi and physicist. He became the focus of disputes as an estranged relative to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty.

External links

• Passing of the Rashag
• Rashag’s Legacy Worth Half a Million
• Stories from Chabadtalk

Footnotes

• 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