Chaim Yehuda ("Yudel") Krinsky (born December 3, 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts) 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 (along with Leib Groner and Binyomin Klein) and is chairman of the movement's main institutions. Krinsky claims that in 1988, after Schneerson's wife died, he named Krinsky an executor of his will. As of 2004, Krinsky was among the most influential figures within the Chabad movement.

Biography

Krinsky grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts and was educated at the Boston Latin School. At the age of 12, he was sent by his parents to study at the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva in Brooklyn, where he received his rabbinic ordination. He joined the Lubavitcher Rebbe's staff in 1952 as a driver.

Activities

In 1956 Krinsky was invited by Schneerson to join his secretariat, then headed by Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov. 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. In 1972, Shneerson appointed Krinsky to the administrative boards of the movement's umbrella organization, Agudas Chasidei Chabad, and its educational arm, Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch. In 1990, 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:

Recognition

Krinsky appeared in several lists of influential American Jews, including the Forward 50 in 2005. From 2007 to 2013, Newsweek magazine compiled an annual list of the fifty most influential rabbis in the United States. Krinsky was in the top five every year.