Obama honors Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who proclaimed Jews a separate species superior to all others

JTA – President Obama said Education and Sharing Day marked the legacy of hope for a "brighter future"of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, who launched the initiative.

"On Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., we celebrate the example set by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who dedicated his life to improving education and fostering goodwill for all people," Obama said in a statement Thursday proclaiming April 15 as the 33rd commemoration of the event instituted by Schneerson in 1978. "His legacy continues to inspire individuals to carry forward his effort to build a brighter future. Each year, Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., reminds us of our obligation to create opportunities for a better tomorrow -- life lessons we pass on to all our children."

Schneerson was an early advocate of a Department of Education separate from the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

#

Beginning in 1978 Congress has authorized and requested the President to proclaim an "education day" honoring Schneerson and the international Lubavitch movement.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, in 1994 "a bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressmen Charles Schumer, John Lewis, Newt Gingrich, and Jerry Lewis to bestow on the Rebbe the Congressional Gold Medal. The bill passed both Houses by unanimous consent, honoring the Rebbe for his 'outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity'."

Schneerson, who died in 1994, taught that Jews were a completely different, superior species than non-Jews and has numerous followers in Israel and the U.S. Among his teachings (as quoted in Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, by Israel Shahak & Norton Mezvinsky, Pluto Press):
"a non-Jewish soul comes from the three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness."

"The body of a Jewish embryo is on a higher level than is the body of a non-Jew."

"the substance of all [divine] emanations was created only to serve the Jews."

"The entire creation [of a non-Jew] exists only for the sake of the Jews."

"the body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of [members] of all nations of the world...A non-Jew’s entire reality is only vanity."

The illegal settlement of Itamar, where five members of a family were brutally murdered last month, hosts Chabad Lubavitch emissaries in the house next door.