New York street to be renamed after the Lubavitcher Rebbe

A section of President Street in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood will be renamed “Lubavitcher Rebbe Way” to honor the leader of the Chabad movement, the New York City Council agreed on Thursday.

“Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was the seventh leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and one of the most transformative figures in modern Jewish history,” said Democratic Council Member Crystal Hudson, who introduced the bill.

"After escaping the Holocaust and arriving in the United States in 1941, the Rebbe’s leadership expanded Chabad-Lubavitch’s global reach, establishing countless institutions: kindergartens, schools, drug rehabilitation centers, care homes and synagogues,” Hudson said.

 “His ability to meet people where they were—engaging them with warmth and heartfelt communication regardless of their background or status—set him apart."

The renaming applies to the segment of President Street between Brooklyn and New York Avenues, the former home of the Rabbi and his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe

Born in 1902 in what is now Ukraine, he became the Rebbe in 1950 and led the Chabad movement until he died in 1994.

On the first anniversary of October 7, President-elect Donald Trump visited the Ohel, the grave site of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

The Ohel is considered a holy site by many Jews, and approximately 50,000 people - both Jews and non-Jews - visit the grave every year.