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Barry Gurary (also: Barry Gourary, Sholom Dovber, Shalom Dov Baer) (b. in Rostov-on-Don, Russia November 2 1923, d. New Jersey, United States March 3 2005), was the son of Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary and Chana daughter of Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (1880-1950).

Family ties and history

Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn was the sixth Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. This made Barry Gurary the nephew of the future Rebbe and Rebbetzin of Chabad, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson (1901-1988) and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson(1902-1994).

Barry Gurary's close family relationship with the leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch was a source of struggle and friction to himself, the Schneersohn and Gurary families and to the Hasidic dynasty which they lead because he was the grandson and the last male relative related directly by birth to the sixth Rebbe. The Previous Rebbe's other son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, was childless.

In the United States he studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, receiving semichah ("ordination") from one of its faculty.

His grandfather, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, showed great affection to him. On the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah, his grandfather delivered one of the longest and most inspiring talks of his tenure as Rebbe.

After the family emigrated to the United States in 1940, Barry did not display a strong interest in being involved in his grandfather's, and father's work. He focused on his own pursuits, prominent among them being the study of physics.

After the death of his grandfather in 1950, he did not follow his uncle Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and eventually left Chabad entirely.

Chabad library controversy

Gurary's grandfather collected a vast library during his lifetime, which included several rare volumes. In 1984, some 34 years after his grandfather's death, Barry tried to take possession of some of those volumes claiming a right to an inheritance. He removed several, 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 Chassidism. 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 demanded that the matter be adjudicated in secular court. Schneerson argued that the volumes were not the personal possession of Barry's grandfather, but the communal property of the Lubavitch Hasidim. The organizational body that represents Lubavitch Chassidim - Agudas Chasidei Chabad, filed suit to retrieve the books.

During the court hearing Gurary's father supported his uncle's side, while his mother Gurary. 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.

Life outside of Lubavitch

Barry Gurary also studied at Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University. He published research papers in physics and even as late as the year 2000 had an obvious interest in scientific matters as revealed by a letter he wrote to The New York Times (published: February 5, 2000):

Updating 'Black Boxes'

To the Editor:

Re Searchers Find 'Black Box' in Alaska Airlines Jet Crash (news article, Feb. 3):

After every airplane crash, we keep reading about the enormous resources expended to find the two black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder, which holds the latest 30 minutes of conversation among the crew, and the flight data recorder, which holds the latest hour's worth of readings from a number of flight instruments.

In this era of rapidly advancing technology, it is puzzling why modern techniques are not used to communicate this precious stream of voice and data to a land-based network of computers, where it would be safe and readily available upon request from an authorized agency.

BARRY S. GOURARY

Montclair, N.J., Feb. 3, 2000

Sources and external links

• Early life (mentalblog)
• His passing (mentalblog)
• 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

• Prominent Lubavitchers
• 1923 births
• 2005 deaths