Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Hasidic Murals Vandalized Amidst Debate About Late Rabbi’s Portrait

Three newly-painted public murals of the Lubavitcher Rebbe were vandalized in Crown Heights late last week, exposing an ongoing debate about the image of the movement’s late charismatic leader — who is revered as the Messiah by a vocal segment of the community.

The community website Collive uploaded surveillance footage on Friday of two young men vandalizing one mural — located on Kingston Avenue, the main artery of Hasidic Crown Heights — by crossing out the portrait with black paint.

The site identifies the two young men as “Yeshiva students.” Two other Kingston Avenue murals were also defaced last week.

The murals were painted earlier this summer by a Montreal graffiti artist known as Zrey Li, and featured a stylized portrait of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and last leader of Lubavitcher Hasidim. Alongside the black-and-white portrait is a list of the Noahide Laws, a list of biblical principles that Schneerson believed should be taught as moral codes for both Jews and non-Jews.

Writing in Collive, a Chabad rabbi had previously denounced the murals as “inappropriate, tasteless and disrespectful,” likening the stenciled style of the image as “suitable for political and cultural figures,” like Martin Luther King Jr. or Che Guevara, “but not for a Rebbe.”

There was also community uproar last month after an image of Schneerson which some saw as mocking appeared in the New York Jewish Week newspaper.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.