My Firsthand Account of the Origins of Extremist Chabad Messianism, by Shoshanna Silcove

I'm a witness to the Meshichistin movement from its inception as I was in Crown Heights at the time. I vividly recall in the early 1990's a Rebbetzin from Machon Chana exclaiming excitedly how several men got up in 770 and declared their group as 'the Meshichistin'. They asserted that these people who believed we need to scream the Yechi chant ( Long live our Rebbe the King Messiah forever and ever!) ad nauseum and, tell the whole world the Rebbe is King Moshiach, are the only ones bringing Moshiach. Everyone who did not go along with them, in their view, was holding up Moshiach from coming, and fighting against the Rebbe. By labelling themselves "The Meshichists" and, by insisting they were the only true Chassidim, they caused intense deep divisions that cut across not only institutions but also among individuals and families.

The Meshichists immediately began their intimidating and bullying of anyone who questioned their fanaticism. Soon Crown Heights was bedecked with their yellow paraphanelia everywhere. They dominated 770 where, after the Rebbe’s passing on Gimmel Tammuz in 1994, they acted as if the Rebbe was still there in the flesh. They would pretend the Rebbe was walking to his red chair in front of shule and was giving out dollars, etc. And there was their violent thuggery too.

My husband was a worker at the Merkos bookstore across from 770 on Eastern Parkway. One day he came to work to find the Meshichistin had stolen the store. They took the computers and hundreds of books, and opened up the Moshiach bookstore a few blocks away on Kingston Ave. My husband was then promoted to manager of the authentic Merkos under Rabbi Yudel Krinsky. The Meshichists claimed that the establishment who owned Merkos, called Agudas Chassidei Chabad ( or Aguch), headed by Rabbi Yudel Krinsky, was illegitimate, even though the Rebbe appointed Aguch owners of both Merkos and 770. The Meshichists split many institutions in Crown Heights in the same way they split Merkos. Soon there were two Machon Chana schools and other institutions too.

They had a core of violent thugs who beat fellow Chassidim who tried to oppose them to the point of hospitalisation. I personally knew of a friend of ours who published a pamphlet of the Rambam's Laws of the Messiah, a work the Rebbe told us to learn. For this my friend had his car completely destroyed by Meshichists, as a warning to him not to publish anything further that opposed their cultish ideas. This intimidation through smear campaigns and violence sent a strong message to anyone who dared oppose them, intimidating even the establishment mentors and Rabbis into silent acquiescence. This is how they were able to control 770 and much of Crown Heights.

This is the background of the present cabal of young men who recently vandalised 770. These young men were indoctrinated by their Meshichist mentors and Rabbis into this extremist anti-social mind set. This is the second generation of Meshichists whose origins are in the 1990's. It is highly doubtful they can be transformed out of their fanaticism and criminality. Now they have committed the worst Chillul Lubavitch and Chillul Hashem in Chabad history! Gevald, gevald, how our holy Rebbe and all the Rebbeim must be crying in Heaven at these fools' despicable actions and at the desecration of our holy shule!