The Rebbe's Army

the long version

Journalist Fishkoff spent a year interviewing Lubavitch emissaries from Anchorage to Miami to give us the first behind-the-scenes look at this Brooklyn-based group of Hasidim and the extraordinary lengths to which they take their mission of outreach. They seem to be everywhere--in big cities, small towns, and suburbs in sixty-one countries. They have built a billion-dollar international empire, with their own news service, publishing house, and hundreds of Websites. Who are these people? How successful are they in making Jews more observant? What influence does their late Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (who some thought was the Messiah), continue to have on his followers?