Chaim Yehuda Krinsky is an ordained rabbi and a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He has served in various positions of the movement's administrative staff since 1954, and as a personal secretary to its chief rabbi. In 1988, after the passing of his wife, Chaya Mushka Schneerson, Schneerson named Krinsky an executor of his will. Today, Krinsky is among the most influential figures within the Chabad movement.
In 1956 Krinsky was invited by Rabbi Schneerson to join his staff, then headed by Rabbi Mordechai Aisik Hodokov. 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. In this capacity, he was in charge of disseminating the Rebbe's talks around the world via satellite. In 1972, Rabbi Schneerson appointed Krinsky to serve on the administrative boards of the movement's umbrella organization, Agudas Chasidei Chabad, and the educational arm, Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch. In 1990, Rabbi 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. Today, Krinsky is Chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch and Machneh Israel, secretary of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, and director of the Kehot Publication Society. He has been active in helping build new schools and expanding the reach of the Chabad movement around the world. He has been active in efforts to retrieve a large library of books connected to the Chabad movement which is in the custody of the Russian government. Many of the books were seized from the previous leader, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, as part of a Soviet crackdown on religion after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Family
Krinsky married Devorah Kasinetz, daughter of Rabbi Zev and Ethel Kasinetz. Their children are:
Rabbi Levi Krinsky, director of Chabad of New Hampshire
Rabbi Hillel David Krinsky, who is married to Shterna Sarah Garelik, daughter of Rabbi Gershon Garelik, the head Lubavitcher rabbi in Milan, Italy. Krinsky is the president of Chabad's Jewish Educational Media.
Menachem M. Krinsky, who is married to Miriam Turner of Chicago
Rabbi Shmaya Krinsky, who is married to Rivkah Gutnick, daughter of Australian commodities magnate Joseph Gutnick
Sheine B. Krinsky, who is married to Rabbi Yosef B. Friedman, associate director of the Kehot Publication Society
Krinsky's achievements have been recognized in the press. He 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 nominated to the list each year. His placings varied from year to year, but he never dropped from the top five.
