The article commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Lubavitcher rebbe’s passing, (“Against All Odds,” June 18), affirms that Lubavitch messianism is in decline, that few emissaries believe in the messiahship of the rebbe, that “only a small group of vocal messianic activists remain, though they continue to control the basement synagogue at Chabad headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway,” that there exist “some incorrigible messianists concentrated in Crown Heights and Kfar Chabad,” and that “the epicenter of Lubavitch” has in any event moved from Crown Heights to the “Ohel” where the rebbe, who “rejected the idea that he was the Messiah,” is buried.

This Alice-in-Wonderland portrait is a result of a remarkably successful campaign of disinformation. This is not the place to go into detail, but I note the following:

1. The rebbe’s record regarding messianic claims made for him was not entirely consistent, but he certainly did not “reject the idea that he was the Messiah.” He periodically discouraged people from making this assertion, but especially toward the end of his life, before the strokes, his resistance waned, and he encouraged the most explicit assertions of his messiahship. (See some of the video clips available at www.770live.org.) I have no interest in criticizing the rebbe, but failure to understand this point leads to a misapprehension of the difficulty faced by Lubavitch chasidim who wish to reject this doctrine.

2. It is not easy to deal with a surreal vision in which the Ohel is more important than the two major population centers of the movement. The central institutions, educational and otherwise, of worldwide Chabad are in Crown Heights, not the Ohel. They are almost all controlled by believers in the rebbe’s messiahship. The main synagogue of the movement, unconscionably described as “the basement synagogue,” is controlled by believers. How could a tiny and fading group be permitted to control the sanctuary where the rebbe prayed and delivered his discourses throughout his career, a place invested with supreme spiritual significance in the eyes of all Lubavitch chasidim?

3. The largest school for boys and young men, Oholei Torah/Oholei Menachem, which trains many emissaries and claims at least 1,600 students, follows the practice of affirming the rebbe’s messiahship during every prayer service and recently issued a directive that anyone who cannot behave respectfully at that time should go elsewhere. Machon Chanah, Chanoch La-Na’ar, the Lubavitch women’s organization, Beth Rivkah High School (which projects an image of non-messianism), Tomchei Temimim, the Lubavitch Youth Organization, and more are either clearly controlled by believers or suffused with messianist content or personnel. The evidence for this assertion ranges from the presence of the messianist banner at the organization’s headquarters or dinner to the signature of its director on a messianist approbation in a messianist book to poignant messianist poems in the songbook used at the student retreat to the director’s assertion on the radio that the rebbe is not only the Messiah but alive.

The situation in Israel is hardly better and may indeed be worse. Even the most fervent apologists for Lubavitch usually add the large and vibrant messianist educational system in Safed to Crown Heights and Kfar Chabad in their list of purported “exceptions.” Many Lubavitch rabbis throughout the country have publicly endorsed the messianist position.

Is this state of affairs even remotely consistent with the portrait of a small minority with fading influence?

3. Though the central organization of emissaries is not messianist in the sense that the term is used in Lubavitch, i.e., its leadership is opposed to open affirmations of the rebbe’s messiahship, the belief that he is the Messiah is very widespread among emissaries. A recent investigation by an Italian-American Jew demonstrated that the emissaries in Italy, including the supposedly non-messianist rabbis in Milan relied upon by the OU, are virtually all believers. Messianism is overt and widespread in France. The major emissaries in the Former Soviet Union signed a messianist ruling whose content they have never repudiated. The head of the rabbinic court in Montreal is a signatory of that ruling. And on and on and on.

Try asking a Lubavitch emissary who you think is not a “messianist” whether he or she recognizes that the rebbe is not the Messiah and will not reveal himself as such in the future. Make it clear that the answer is not confidential. The number who will reply with an unequivocal “yes” is negligible. This negligible number will not increase exponentially even if you modify the question and ask whether the emissary believes that there is a strong possibility that the Messiah will turn out to be someone other than the rebbe.

4. In sum, the overwhelming majority of Lubavitch chasidim believe that the rebbe is the Messiah, though there are deep disagreements about the desirability of public or liturgical affirmations. This belief is affirmed in the prayer service and/or taught in the classroom in the major schools. It is, in short, a part of the religion in which Lubavitch children are brought up. Messianist activism is a subject of vigorous dispute, but despite the existence of a small number of skeptics, the messianist faith, at least in terms of the essential affirmation that the rebbe will ultimately be revealed as the Messiah, is not. n

David Berger is a history professor at Brooklyn College and the author of “The Rebbe, The Messiah and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference.”