Chaim Yehuda ("Yudel") Krinsky (born December 3, 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts)[1] is a rabbi and a leader in the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He served in various positions of the movement's administrative staff since 1954, and as a personal secretary to its chief rabbi, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and is chairman of the movement's main institutions.
In 1988, after Schneerson's wife died, he named Krinsky sole executor of his will, later probated and recorded in New York.[2]
As of 2004, Krinsky was among the most influential figures within the Chabad movement.[3]
In 1956 Krinsky was invited by Schneerson to join his secretariat, headed by Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov.[4] Krinsky's position included work on behalf of the Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. At that time, Schneerson also appointed Krinsky to direct the Lubavitch News Service, including disseminating Schneerson's talks around the world via satellite.[5]
Schneerson selected Krinsky to serve as the official secretary of the movement's three central organizations, Agudas Chasidei Chabad, Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, and Machneh Israel, the movement's social services arm.
Family
Krinsky married Devorah Kasinetz, daughter of Rabbi Zev and Ethel Kasinetz. Their children are:
Rabbi Levi Krinsky, director of Chabad of New Hampshire
Krinsky appeared in several lists of influential American Jews, including the Forward 50 in 2005.[9]
From 2007 to 2013,[10]Newsweek magazine compiled an annual list of the fifty most influential rabbis in the United States. Krinsky was in the top five every year.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]
^Lynton, Michael; Ginsberg, Gary; Sanderson, Jay (2009). "50 Influential Rabbis". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 19 April 2010. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
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