Reb Yisroel Areyh Leib Schneerson was born in Nikolayev, Russia, in 1906.

At the age of only eight he was described by his grandfather, Rabbi Baruch Shneur Schneerson as showing “tendencies of genius, fluent in Talmud and Midrash and able to study very well”.

In 1931, Yisroel Areyh Leib escaped Stalinist communism to Berlin where he assumed the name of Mark Gurari, after the name of a family friend who died young.

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