Clinton-Chabad Meeting Quoted

By COLlive reporter

President Barack Obama‘s 100th day in office has brought Lubavitch to light.

In an article about the “hoopla” around Obama’s administration, the New York Times reviews what previous presidents have done to mark their 100 days since taking oath.

“On Bill Clinton’s 100th day, he was photographed with the king of Spain, and some Lubavitcher rabbis dropped by to present him with a skullcap inscribed with his name, in Hebrew and English,” the Times wrote.

That meeting was coordinated by American Friends of Lubavitch and headed by its chairman Rabbi Avraham Shemtov of Philadelphia.

U.S. Presidents, since Jimmy Carter, have declared the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s birthday as the national Education and Sharing Day.

On November 2, 1994, a bill was passed both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to posthumously bestow on the Rebbe the Congressional Gold Medal for his “outstanding and enduring contributions toward world education, morality, and acts of charity.”

President Clinton said at the ceremony: “For over two decades, the Rabbi’s movement now has some 2000 institutions; educational, social, medical, all across the globe. We (the United States Government) recognize the profound role that Rabbi Schneerson had in the expansion of those institutions.”