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Barry Gurary (also: Barry Gourary, Sholom Dovber Gur Aryeh, Shalom Dov Baer Gur Aryeh) (b. in Rostov-on-Don, Russia November 2 1923, d. Montclair, New Jersey, United States March 3 2005), childless (though he adopted two children). Was the only son of Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary and Rebbetzin Chana Gurary, who was the elder daughter of Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn. Barry Gurary was an ordained non-practicing Orthodox rabbi and physicist. He became the focus of disputes as an estranged relative to the ruling Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty.
Family origins and history
Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn was the sixth Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. This made Barry Gurary both the only grandson of the sixth Rebbe, Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneerson, as well as the only nephew of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson (1901-1988) and her husband the future seventh Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) who were childless.
Barry Gurary's close family relationship with the leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch was a source of struggle and friction to himself, the Schneersohn and Schneerson (the elder Schneersohn had an "h" in his name, the younger did not) and Gurary families and to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty which they led - precisely because he was the only grandson and the last male relative related directly by birth to the sixth Rebbe. Little is known about Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson's own surviving relatives. Upon his death Rabbi Menachem Schneerson appointed Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Krinsky, a non-relative, as the sole executor of his will.
Childhood and education
After the family emigrated to the United States in 1940, Barry evidently did not display a strong interest in his grandfather's, and father's work. He focused on his own pursuits, prominent among them being the study of physics.
In the United States Barry Gurary studied at the famed Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, receiving semichah ("ordination") from one of its faculty.
After the death of his grandfather in 1950, he did not follow his uncle Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and eventually left the Chabad-Lubavitch movement entirely.
The place of Barry Gurary in Chabad-Lubavitch
During the lifetime of the sixth Rebbe, Barry Gurary's father, Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary (known in Lubavitch by his initials as Rashag) (1898-1989) held key positions.
One year after the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe died, Rabbi Schneerson became the official Rebbe of the movement while Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary, Barry Gurary's father, held agreed upon positions of power behind the scenes, such as running the Tomchei Temimim school system, and was loyal to his brother-in-law qua seventh Rebbe.
The only grandson of the sixth Rebbe
On the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah, there is a tradition that his grandfather delivered one of the longest and most inspiring talks of his tenure as Rebbe. As the only grandson, Barry Gurary was a possible heir at a young age because in Hasidic dynasties male heirs usually take over the position of leadership (see more at the Hasidic Judaism and Baal Shem Tov articles), but he drifted away from this.
As nephew to the seventh Rebbe
Barry Gurary was the nephew of the seventh Rebbe's wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson (1901-1988), who was the younger daughter of the sixth Rebbe. In other important Hasidic groups, nephews of Rebbes have themselves in turn become the Rebbes following the death of their uncles. For example, in similar recent historical circumstances, after Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum the last Satmar Rebbe died, his nephew, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum indeed became the next Satmar Rebbe and when Rabbi Aharon Rokeach the previous and fourth Belzer Rebbe died, there was a serious division of opinion within Belz, but ultimately his nephew Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach the present Rebbe took over. This did not happen in Lubavitch (even though Rabbi Menachem Schneerson was himself a son-in-law to the previous Rebbe, a distant cousin) and Barry Gurary, as a direct grandson of the sixth Rebbe, was neither a candidate nor did anyone move to make him Rebbe after the death of the last Rebbe in Chabad-Lubavitch. On the contrary, over the years, and culminating with a final legal battle and a physical assault against his mother, Barry Gurary became persona non grata and cast out by the movement his father had helped build up and which his ancestors had headed from its inception.
Chabad library controversy
A family dispute arose about the library of the sixth Rebbe which also brought an internal family rivalry between Barry Gurary (supported by his mother) and his uncle the seventh Rebbe into the public spotlight.
Barry Gurary's grandfather, the sixth Rebbe, collected a vast library of Judaica, which included several rare volumes. In 1984, some 34 years after his grandfather's death, Barry Gurary entered the library and removed books including a first print Passover haggadah worth over $50,000, and a Siddur (Jewish prayer book) that was said to have belonged to the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism and had begun selling the books. One illuminated Passover Haggadah dating back to 1757 was sold for $69,000 to a Swiss book dealer who soon found a private buyer to pay nearly $150,000 for it. His uncle, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Chabad Rebbe, was infuriated by these actions. He demanded that the volumes be returned. When Barry refused, he was then asked to appear before a Beth din, but refused. Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Krinsky consulted rabbinic authorities on Jewish law who advised him that appeals can be made to a secular governmental court if justice cannot be effectuated in a Jewish court. On legal advice the Lubavitchers decided to obtain a temporary restraining order in the hope that this would resolve the matter. Rabbi Schneerson argued that the volumes were not the "personal possession" of Gurary's grandfather, but the "communal property" of the Lubavitch Hasidim. The organizational body that represents Lubavitch Chassidim - Agudas Chasidei Chabad (ACC), filed suit to retrieve the books.
During the court hearing Gurary's father supported his uncle's side, while his mother supported her son, Barry Gurary. Unfortunately, after Rabbi Schneerson had delivered a passionate talk on this subject, a young Lubavitcher entered her home and viciously assaulted her.
In 1986, the court ruled in favor of ACC, and that ruling was upheld on appeal in 1987. The volumes were returned to the library. The Lubavitcher Rebbe then proclaimed this day as a special time of rejoicing for Lubavitch which they called Didan Notzach (which basically means "we won" implying that it was God who helped them win). Barry Gurary and his mother Chana Gurary thus became compeletely estranged from the Lubavitch community. So much so, that when it came time for Chana Gurary to make arrangements for her final resting place, she went accompanied by her son Barry Gurary, to negotiate a burial place with the Munkatcher Rebbe of Borough Park, Brooklyn. Chana was laid to rest in the cemetery of the Munkacser Kehilla in Deans, New Jersey.
Barry Gurary retreated into a secluded and private life after the legal disputes with his uncle and Lubavitch came to an end in 1987, followed by the death of his father in 1989 and that of his mother a few years later.
Academic career
Barry Gurary studied and did research as a physicist at Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University. He also published research papers mostly in physics that are also available on the Internet, in some instances more than fifty years after their publication:
- Gourary, Barry S.; Hart, Robert W. (Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University): Spherical Model of an Antiferromagnet (1954, Physical Review, vol. 95, Issue 3, pp. 676-686) ;
- Barry S. Gourary and Frank J. Adrian: Approximate Wave Functions for the F Center, and Their Application to the Electron Spin Resonance Problem (1957, The American Physical Society)
- Barry S. Gourary and Perry J. Luke: Approximate Wave Functions for the M-Center by the Point-Ion Lattice Method (1957, The American Physical Society)
- Barry S. Gourary, Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Silver Spring, Maryland : Approximate Wave Functions for the U Center by the Point-Ion-Lattice Method (1958, The American Physical Society)
- Cited in the correspondence in the John Clarke Slater Papers (1908-1976), Detailed inventory: Series I. Correspondence: Gourary, Barry S (American Philosophical Society)
See also
Sources and external links
- Story behind the Library (Lubavitch POV)
- Google search shows photo (left) of Barry Gurary, left, with his grandmother, the wife of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe
- Shaul Shimon Deutsch, Larger than Life