By COLlive reporter
Websites in Israel excitedly reported this week about an “exciting discovery” that Mark Zuckerberg credits the founding of his social networking website Facebook to the Rebbe.
The website hidabroot.org said Zuckerberg was “recently interviewed by an American Jewish magazine,” while another website kooker.co.il wrote that the Internet entrepreneur spoke to “a local Jewish newspaper.”
They both quoted Zuckerberg as saying the following about his father, Dr. Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist in Westchester County, New York:
“Before I was born, my parents had 3 daughters and my father wanted a boy. After visiting several doctors without success, they almost gave up hope. Until a family friend of my father, who is a chossid of the Rebbe, advised that he ask the Rebbe for a blessing.
“Although my father doesn’t believe in such things, he traveled to New York in 1982 because of his strong wish to have a son. When he came to the Rebbe, he was asked if he is Torah observant. When he replied in the negative, the Rebbe explained the philosophy of Chabad and connecting all Jews through collective action.
“The Rebbe instructed my father to commit to teaching Judaism to his son. My father promised to give me a Jewish education. I was born 18 months later and on my Bar Mitzvah gave me the dollar bill he got from the Rebbe.
“During my studies in university, the idea of the Facebook project started being built and I remembered what my father told me. I felt there was a connection between what the Rebbe said and my social network. When It was time to register Facebook as a company, I felt this was the time to use this dollar and deposited it in the bank. The rest is history…”
The 31-year-old Zuckerberg, who was born in White Plains, New York, was indeed raised Jewish and had his Bar Mitzvah when he turned 13. He also has 3 sisters named Randi, Donna, and Arielle Zuckerberg.
But it is here where reality and fiction part ways…
Zuckerberg’s supposed revelation was first reported in December 2014 on a French Jewish variety blog named tzimelblog.com where it attributed the interview to the “Dutch Jewish newspaper” Joodse Kronieken, which does not exist.
What most readers and translators of that article missed was an “Addendum” added to the post after it had made its rounds. It reads “This article was our joke for Purim! Happy Celebration!”
It seems as if the prank has managed to linger way past Purim… having reappeared once again in the media recently.
Mark was certainly Blessed by the Rebbe considering the Rebbe kept in mind every Jew in many of his Blessings. Mark is certainly Blessed by the Holy One Blessed Be He for as we know ‘His Blessing enriches’ (Birchas Hashem he taashir). Mark is close to connections with fellow Jews who identify with Judaism, and surely this will strengthen his own identification with Judaism. On the subject of his “marriage” to an Asian woman… it appears, more than anything else, to be a clever public relations ploy to garner the largest market share in the world [among others]. Either way,… Read more »
This NOT a true story
even if he wasn’t born through a direct bracha of the rebe. and yes, its sad if a jew marry a goy, even if he doesn’t care, (it just shows how far he is)
Why aren’t you sad that a (any) Yid married a Goy?
That which Hitler YM”S couldn’t do, every intermarried Jewish male does to all his decendents! R”L
And even the girls who marriy out – most of their children don’t even know what being Jewish means!
The Rebbe would not give anyone a bracha to have a boy over a girl…
And more so, the Rebbe never asked people if they were observant…
This is a bad Purim Torah.
We care about his neshama even if he doesn’t…
Sad. Yes.
Started then, but dollars were distributed for years prior, like at farbrengens aad other occasions.
People sometimes got dollar bills in Yechidus
Are you not aware that this whole article is here to say that this story isn’t true? Did you notice the last few paragraphs?
He’s not sad so why are you?
The blog entry is dated 13-Mar-2014, not December.
u did not finish the article. It is a joke!
So sad that he married a non yid