Yehuda Krinsky - Biography

Chaim Yehuda (Yudel) Krinsky (born 1933, Boston, Massachusetts) is a Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi. He served for forty years in various positions as an important assistant to the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. He served as chief spokesman for the Rebbe and the Lubavitch movement, and was named sole executor of Schneerson's will. He has been at the helm of the movement's finances since the death of Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov, the Rebbe’s chief of staff. He was also his chauffeur for many years. According to Avrum Erlich, "Krinsky is probably the most powerful individual in the contemporary Habad movement."

Biography

Krinsky grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts and was educated at the Boston Latin School. At the age of 12, he was sent by his parents to study at the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva in Brooklyn, where he received his rabbinical ordination. He was called upon to join Schneerson's staff in 1957.

Activities

In the late 1950s Krinsky created the Lubavitch News Service. He was in charge of disseminating the Rebbe's talks around the world via satellite.

In 1988, the Lubavitcher Rebbe set about reorganizing the organizational structures of the movement and Krinsky was reinstated as secretary of the three controlling boards. Currently, Krinsky is Chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch and Machne Israel, the movement's educational and social services arms, secretary of the umbrella organization Agudas Chasidei Chabad, and director of the Kehot Publication Society.

After the Rebbe's wife died in 1988, the Rebbe appointed Krinsky as the sole executor of his will. Krinsky has been active in helping to build new schools and expanding the reach of the Chabad movement around the world.

He has been active in efforts to retrieve a large library of books connected to the Chabad movement which is in the custody of the Russian government. Many of the books were seized from the previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, as part of a Soviet crackdown on religion after the Russian Revolution. Krinsky garnered the support of actor Jon Voight and politician Sam Brownback for his cause.

Family

Krinsky is married to Devorah Kasinetz, daughter of the late Rabbi Zev and Ethel Kasinetz. Their children are:

• Rabbi Levi Krinsky, director of Chabad of New Hampshire.
• Rabbi Hillel David Krinsky, who is married to Shterna Sarah Garelik, daughter of Gershon Garelik, the chief rabbi of Milan, Italy. He is the president of Chabad's Jewish Educational Media.
• Menachem M. Krinsky, who is married to Miriam Turner of Chicago.
• Rabbi Shmaya Krinsky, who is married to Rivkah Gutnick, daughter of Australian commodities magnate Joseph Gutnick.
• Sheine B. Krinsky, who is married to Rabbi Yosef B. Friedman, associate director of the Kehot Publication Society.
• Chana Krinsky, who is married to Rabbi Joseph Futerfas, director of Camp Gan Israel, New York.

Recognition

Krinsky was named to the Forward 50 in 2005.

He received the second-place mention in a list of the fifty most influential US rabbis compiled by Newsweek in 2007, behind Marvin Hier. He received the fourth-place mention in Newsweek 2008 and 2009 lists.

In 2010 he earned Newsweek first-place mention in the list of the fifty most influential US rabbis.

Sources