Really. He is. Died 12 years ago. Unfortunately, a large (part of a large) movement within Judaism believes that a dead man is the messiah, will have a second coming and will redeem the world. Does this remind you of anything else (i.e.: think of another offshoot of Judaism that believes to this day that a man who died 2,000 years ago is the messiah and will return from death to bring salvation to all)?
I personally just became more aquainted with the subject after reading most of David Berger’s excellent book on the subject. Now I am seeing posters and graffiti everywhere proclaiming that the Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of blessed memory, is really the messiah. (Not to mention little children handing out pamphlets on street corners). It should be universally denounced.

The scariest part is that it seems that people have gotten used to it, and do not see it as dangerous. An ad I saw recently illustrated this very well. It was for a concert to be held on chol hamoed Pesach (last night), to celebrate the 104th birthday of the Rebbe, to welcome “Mashiach Tzidkeinu“. It was held in a large arena in Tel Aviv and featured none other than the Miami Boys Choir and Yaakov Shweckey. They should be ashamed of themselves. I will be thinking twice about buying any more of their music in the future. But I was shocked to see that Jewish performers that are considered to be “mainstream” to be openly associating themselves with an event that is advertised as a huge messianist gathering. And no one seems to care.

To quote a former Rosh Yeshiva of mine: Az very scary!