LEVINE, CHAIM ABRAHAM DOV-BER HAKOHEN (“THE MALACH.”)

R. Chaim Abraham Dov-Ber ben Shneur Zalman Levine (1861-1938 "The Malach") hailed from the White Russian town of Ilya and was one of the foremost Lubavitcher Chassidim, engaged by Fifth Rebbe, R. Shalom-Ber Schneerson (Rasha"b,1860-1920) as the private tutor to his only son R. Joseph Isaac (1880-1950), who would eventually succeed his father as the sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch. However the relationship suffered a severe rupture when the Malach was outraged that his young charge reputedly displayed interests outside of his Torah studies. The Malach boldly opined that R. Joseph Isaac was not worthy to succeed his father as the next Rebbe and immediately a deep rift developed between the parties concerned. From then on, the Malach regarded the leadership of Chabad illegitimate and henceforth his loyalty would be only to earlier generations of the dynasty. In 1923, the Malach emigrated to America where he served a congregation in the Bronx to where one of his admirers, R. Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, sent some of the students of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath to study Chassiduth with him. The Malach promptly had a mesmerizing effect on these students to the degree that these American-born young men soon utterly rejected anything that resembled a Western lifestyle or influence, devoting themselves exclusively to Torah-related pursuits. This contingent became devoted followers of the Malach and creating their own exclusive commuity in the Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn. For further, see B. Sobel, The M'lochim, A Study of a Religious Community (1956)