R' Shaul Shimon Deutsch, the Liozna Minyan, familiar?

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Wed, Oct 05 2011, 5:28 pm

Shaul Shimon DeutschFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search

Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, the Liozna Rebbe (born 1966), is a rabbi and author from New York City. He wrote and self-published a biography of the Chabad-Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson entitled Larger than Life, which proved extremely controversial in Chabad circles.

Contents
1 Biography
2 Activities
3 Bibliography
4 References
5 External links

[edit] BiographyShaul Shimon Deutsch was ordained as a rabbi by Chabad and subsequently earned a business degree. In 1988 he won first place in a national entrepreneurial competition.[1]

Deutsch is now the Rebbe of Anshei-Liozna, a Chasidic court that broke away from Chabad-Lubavitch and is centered in Boro Park, Brooklyn. He has been the Liozna Rebbe since 1995.[2] The group appointed him their Rebbe at their synagogue on 45th Street in Brooklyn.[3]

He took the name of the town of Liozna in Belorussia (where the early Chabad movement was founded) with the intent of enticing Chabad followers away from the belief that their late leader was the Messiah.[3] Deutsch's group has been viewed negatively by Chabad-Lubavitch since the founding of Anshei-Liozna.[4]

In 1998 he was the victim of a campaign of character assassination via the Internet.[2] A forged Jewish Telegraphic Agency press release claimed that he had been arrested for "embezzlement" and the "counterfeiting" of "ten-dollar bills". He installed bulletproof glass in the windows of his home and synagogue.[4]

Deutsch is married to Pe'er Deutsch and they have five children.

Along with many other controversial books within Haredi Judaism his book is rare and highly sought after, with used copies retailing at around $350 as of 200, due to it being out of print since its initial publishing in 1995.

[edit] ActivitiesHe runs a City Harvest-affiliated food charity that feeds more than 1,000 poor people each week, with dozens of volunteers. The charity distributes $5.5 million of food annually.[5]

He presented a weekly radio show on Saturday night on Talkline Communications Network, however this was stopped after the company's director received repeated threatening and obscene calls at his home.[5] The show has since recommenced. He has also been an executive director of the Manhattan landmark electronics store J&R Music World, and still works as a consultant.[5] He writes a weekly column for Hamodia.[5]

His museum called the Living Torah Museum containing 979 archaeological objects that he says are worth nearly $15 million at his home in a building adjacent to his home and synagogue in Boro Park. The Museum was featured in the journal Biblical Archaeology Review and archaeologist Hershel Shanks, has declared that this was "the first museum that he knew of in the United States devoted to biblical archeology" adding that Deutch "has done what no one else in the United States (perhaps in the world outside of Israel) has done. ... All the big shots, all the people with access to the most sophisticated knowledge and current excavations, have not accomplished what Rabbi Deutsch has."[5]