Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam
Encyclopedia
Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (January 10, 1905 - June 18, 1994) was an Orthodox
rabbi
and the founding rebbe
of the Sanz-Klausenburg
Hasidic
dynasty.
Halberstam became one of the youngest rebbes in Europe, leading thousands of followers in the town of Klausenburg
, Romania
, before World War II
. His wife, eleven children and most of his followers were murdered by the Nazis
while he was incarcerated in several concentration camps. After the war, he rebuilt Jewish communal life in the displaced person
s camps of Western Europe
, re-established his dynasty in the United States
and Israel
, and rebuilt his own family with a second marriage and the birth of seven more children.
, Poland
. He was a great-grandson (through the direct male line) of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam
of Sanz (the Divrei Chaim), one of the great Hasidic leaders of Polish Jewry, and a grandson of the Gorlitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Baruch Halberstam (1829–1906). His father, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Halberstam, the Rav of Rudnik, instilled in the young Yekusiel Yehudah a love of Hasidut and Torah scholarship, sharing with him stories of how the Divrei Chaim learned, prayed and conducted his tish
(Shabbat
and Jewish holiday
celebratory table).
When Yekusiel Yehudah was 13, his father died. Afterwards he studied with other leading Hasidic rebbes, including Rabbi Myer Yechiel of Ostrovtza
, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapiro (the Munkatcher Rebbe), and his great-uncle, Rabbi Shalom Eliezer Halberstam of Ratzfert
. During this period, Yekusiel Yehudah became known as the "ilui ("genius") of Rudnik,". In later years he would periodically return to Rudnik to visit with his followers, who remained loyal to him even after the appointment of his first cousin Rabbi Benyumin Teitelbaum-Halberstam as Rabbi in 1924.
In 1921, Halberstam married his second cousin, Chana Teitelbaum, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum
, the Rabbi of Sighet, Romania
. She was also a descendant of the Divrei Chaim: her grandfather, Rabbi Sholom Eliezer Halberstam, was one of the seven sons of the Sanzer Rav. The young couple lived in her father's house for the next five years.
In 1927, at the age of 22, Halberstam accepted the post of Rabbi of Klausenburg
, the capital city of Transylvania
(western Romania). Although he was relatively young, he impressed the largely non-religious community with his charismatic personality, wisdom, and warmth toward Jews of all backgrounds. During the 16 years that Halberstam led the Klausenberg community, he exhibited many of the qualities that would set him apart during his imprisonment by the Nazis. He slept only three hours a night, often on a synagogue bench, and he often ate only one meal a day, reserving bread for the Sabbath
. He spent much of his day in prayer and study. His love for and faith in God was legendary. He also paid special attention to children, founding a yeshivah in which 100 students learned in Klausenberg.
The Rebbe's reputation spread throughout Romania and Hungary, and even reached Israel. In 1937 Halberstam was offered a seat on the Jerusalem rabbinical court
. Uncertain as to whether he should accept the seat or stay with his community, Halberstam wrote to his mother in Rudnik for advice. She advised him to stay where he was, saying he was too young to accept such a position.
, Romania
and Hungary
—the city of Klausenberg was taken over the Hungarian Magyars, who were Nazi collaborator
s. Jews were pulled off the streets and taken to forced-labor camps.
In 1941, a new law required all Jews living in Hungary to prove that their family had lived in and paid taxes in Hungary back to 1851. Suddenly thousands of Jews, including the Rebbe (who was born in Poland), were placed in jeopardy. The Rebbe, his wife and eleven children were arrested and brought to Budapest
, where the family was separated. The Rebbe was jailed with a group of leaders who were eventually sent directly to Auschwitz. Thanks to the efforts of friends and supporters, the Rebbe was released and the family returned to Klausenberg.
Despite the danger, the Rebbe refused to leave his followers and made no effort to save himself from further searches. Instead, he threw himself into helping refugee
s from Nazi-occupied lands and tending to his followers. Between 1941 and 1944, the Rebbe never stopped studying Torah
and praying for the Jewish people.
On March 19, 1944 the Germans invaded Hungary and Gestapo
chief Adolf Eichmann
immediately organized the round-up, ghettoization
, and deportation
of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The Klausenberg ghetto was established on May 1, 1944, and was liquidated via six transports to Auschwitz between late May and early June. Knowing that the Gestapo targeted community leaders first, the Rebbe hid in an open grave in a cemetery for several weeks. He then fled to the town of Banya, where he was conscripted into a forced-labor camp along with 5000 other Hungarian Jews. Though hunger was not a problem here—the barbed-wire enclosure had a back exit through which Jews could buy bread and milk from non-Jews—the Hungarian soldiers constantly badgered and searched inmates for their valuables. The Rebbe was forced to shave his beard, but he did not lose his composure or faith in God. He continued to conduct prayer services and even a Shabbat tisch
.
and was sent to work.
In Auschwitz, Halberstam seemed to live in another world. The bits of food that other prisoners hungered for and fought over were, in the Rebbe's eyes, less important than their use for mitzvot. He decided early on to try to keep every Torah commandment he could, and even the minhag
im that he had learned from his forefathers. Thus, he would often choose to use the bit of water he had to wash his hands for prayer, rather than to wash his hands to eat. He never touched non-kosher food and refused to eat food cooked in a non-kosher pot. Often he went hungry. His staunch faith gave spiritual strength to many. He assured his fellow inmates that God was with them in the valley of death, and would not abandon them.
In 1944, a year after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising
, Halberstam was assigned to a special labor detail to clear out the ruined ghetto. He and 6000 other prisoners searched for valuables and demolished the ruins by hand and with rudimentary tools so that the Nazis could sell the bricks and steel to Polish contractors. As they beheld skeletons piled in the street, and uncovered bunkers in which Jews had died by gas or shooting, the Hungarian prisoners realized for the first time the extent of the annihilation of European Jewry.
This time the Rebbe did not shave his beard, which is considered a mark of holiness for Hasidim. He wrapped his beard and face in a handkerchief, pretending he had a toothache. This charade was accompanied by the fact that he cried all day as he worked, praying and communing with God.
When the prisoners began to hear rumors that their labor detail was about to be liquidated, they decided to try to escape rather than let the Nazis kill them. However, the Rebbe encouraged them to adopt a "wait and see" attitude. In response to one plan, in which prisoners would storm the camp gates and make a run for the forest, where they would connect with partisan
s, the Rebbe advised, "Until we see that the Nazis are about to exterminate us, it is prohibited for anyone to sacrifice his life and put himself in a situation of certain death. But one must remain vigilant, and as soon as it becomes clear that the Nazis are ready to attack us, we must do everything in our power to rise up against them." The prisoners decided to follow his advice. Some time later, after most of the prisoners had been transported from Warsaw, 500 remaining prisoners did stage a revolt. The Nazis killed every one of them.
As the Russian Army
moved closer to Poland, the Germans decided to liquidate the special ghetto-clearing unit of which Halberstam was a member. All the prisoners were taken to a field outside of Warsaw, told to undress and stand near open pits, where soldiers prepared to machine-gun them. At the last moment, however, a car sped into the field. A high-ranking officer jumped out and communicated the special order from Berlin to stop the execution and send the prisoners to the Dachau concentration camp, where they were needed as slave laborers.
This unexpected reprieve, however, led to a brutal death march
. For the next week, the prisoners were forced by SS soldiers wielding wooden clubs and steel bars to march 21 miles a day at top speed. In the blazing July heat, the emaciated prisoners were deprived of food and water and allowed to rest only at night. Those who couldn't keep up were shot.
On the third day, strained to the length of their endurance, the group was finally brought to rest for the night in a field surrounded by SS officers. As the guards slept, the Rebbe passed the word around: "Everyone should dig beneath himself. God's salvation comes in the blink of an eye." Each prisoner began to dig with his fingers, spoons, or pieces of wood. Remarkably, each found water, and small springs began to pop up everywhere, quenching everyone's thirst and giving them new life.
On the fifth day, the surviving marchers were packed into cattle cars for the rest of the journey to Dachau. Over the next few days, many succumbed to the overcrowding, lack of water, stench and heat in the cattle cars. Of the 6000 that set out on the death march, less than 2000 made it to Dachau alive. The Rebbe was one of the survivors.
, allowing him to sweep and tidy the barracks while engaging in prayer the entire day.
Despite the hardships and privations, Halberstam was a beacon of strength and hope for his fellow prisoners. When one died in the infirmary—hardly a noteworthy occurrence in those days—the Rebbe stood up and eulogized him for having been a great Torah
scholar in Hungary. He refused to eat non-kosher food or food cooked in the non-kosher kitchen, subsisting only on bread and water during his nine months in Muldorf. Moreover, he would not eat the bread until he had ritually washed his hands, and would often wait for days to find some water for this purpose. One prisoner watched him stand beside the cement mixer for hours at a time, collecting the drops of water that dripped from the tank.
As the war wound down in spring 1945, the Germans disbanded the Muldorf camp and sent the inmate population on yet another death march
, chasing them from place to place without food or rest. Sometimes they were loaded aboard rail cars and driven to and fro. On Friday, April 27, the train suddenly stopped in a small town and SS officers jumped aboard, declaring, "You are free!" and ripping the Wehrmacht
badges from their uniforms. Many prisoners believed them and jumped off the train. But Halberstam told the people around him, "Today is the eve of Shabbat. Where will we go?" Then he added, "My heart tells me that not everything here is as it should be." Suddenly, SS soldiers rode in on bicycles from all directions, firing machine guns and killing hundreds of people. At the same time, American bombers dove in, strafing the field. Only Halberstam and those who stayed with him on the train escaped injury. Two days later, their real liberation
came when the train stopped near a village and the Nazi guards deserted them. American soldiers boarded the train with smiles, candy and chocolates.
The group was brought to the Feldafing
DP camp near Munich
, exhausted, demoralized and penniless. Here Halberstam's leadership qualities rose to the fore and he became the spokesman and leader of the religious survivors. He immediately arranged for the proper burial of those who had died by the train tracks, and demanded kosher food for the survivors. On the first Shabbat after liberation, he led the public prayer services in a newly-opened synagogue
and delivered a two-hour lecture, quoting from memory scholarly writings that he had last seen years before.
Halberstam's wife and ten of his children were murdered by the Nazis during World War II
. His eldest son survived the war, but succumbed to illness in a nearby DP camp before his father even knew that he had survived. Yet Halberstam never complained of his lot, and avoided depression
by reaching out to others. He spent much time listening to and comforting people of all ages, and brought hundreds of people back to religious observance through his passionate public speeches.
, a larger location in Munich which he turned into the center of religious Jewish life for all the DP camps. Here the Rebbe created a communal survivors organization called She'aris Hapleitah ("the surviving remnant"), which operated religious schools for boys and girls and yeshivos for young men in 19 different DP camps. In addition, Halberstam set up a kosher slaughterhouse; built a kosher mikveh; acquired and distributed religious articles such as tzitzit
, tefillin
and mezuzot
; raised money to help couples marry; and established Halakhic
(Jewish legal) guidelines for men and women who had no proof of their spouse's death, enabling them to remarry and start new families.
On Yom Kippur
, 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower
visited the camps and came to see Halberstam, who had received a reputation as a "wonder rabbi". However, the Rebbe would not speak with him until he had finished his prayers. Afterwards he told the general, "I was praying before the General of Generals, King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He. The earthly general had to wait." Impressed by the rabbi's leadership and frankness, Eisenhower asked him if there was any way he could help him in his efforts. In typical fashion, Halberstam asked for a small sample of the Four Species
so that the survivors could properly celebrate the upcoming Sukkot
holiday.
In spring 1946 the Rebbe made a special fund-raising trip to New York
on behalf of She'eris HaPleita, raising $100,000, a huge sum in those days. That fall, he embarked on another fund-raising trip and decided to resettle in New York to strengthen the American Jewish community there and to continue working for Holocaust survivors from that side of the Atlantic
. He established his court in the Williamsburg
section of Brooklyn
.
. The match was made by Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl
, Rabbi Ungar's son-in-law who had survived the Holocaust and re-established his yeshiva in Somerville, New Jersey
. The tenayim were held in Weissmandl's Nitra Yeshiva, while the chuppah
and dancing were held at Yeshivas She'aris Hapleitah, the Rebbe's yeshiva in Somerville.
Although the Klausenberger Rebbe had gone to great lengths to allow agunos
and widowers to remarry after the Holocaust, relying on testimonies from people who had seen their spouses being led "to the left" in the Nazi
selections rather than documented evidence, the Rebbe did not rely on the testimonies of his first wife's death. Instead, he sought the approval of 100 rabbis and sat on the ground for half an hour in mourning
for his first wife before he remarried.
He and his second wife had five daughters and two sons. His sons, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Halberstam and Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Halberstam, succeeded him, respectively, as Sanzer Rebbe of Netanya and Klausenberger-Sanz Rebbe of New York.
was not a permanent one. Throughout his travails in the Holocaust, he always had in mind the goal of settling in Israel
. Toward that end, he established the Kiryat Sanz
neighborhood in the beachside city of Netanya
in 1956. In so doing, he was the first Rebbe to establish a Haredi
neighborhood in an Israeli development town. Over the next few years, he raised money for the establishment of key institutions to serve this neighborhood, including girls' and boys' schools and yeshiva
s, an orphanage
, and an old-age home. He also laid the cornerstone for a community hospital to be run according to the strictest standards of Halakha
. This hospital, which would eventually take the name of two bankers from Switzerland, the Laniado brothers, whose estate provided a $300,000 donation for the Rebbe, opened in 1975; today it encompasses two medical centers, a children’s hospital, a geriatric center and a nursing school, serving a regional population of over 450,000.
The Rebbe moved to Israel in 1960, settling in Netanya and directing both the community there and in Williamsburg. He also founded battei medrash
and schools in other cities in Israel, and established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood of Jerusalem as well.
In 1968 he founded yet another Sanz community in Union City, New Jersey
, and afterwards divided his time between that community and his residence in Netanya.
and Shulchan Aruch
and complete written tests on 20-30 pages per month in return for a monthly stipend
. Mifal HaShas continues to operate today worldwide. The Israeli and European operations are under the leadership of Zvi Elimelech Halberstam
, the Rebbe's oldest son and current Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Israel. The North American operations are under the leadership of Samuel David Halberstam, the Rebbe's son and current Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Brooklyn
.
The Rebbe recorded his Torah novellae in Shefa Chayim and She'eilos Uteshuvos Divrei Yatziv.
Halberstam died on June 18, 1994, and was buried in Netanya. In his will, he divided leadership of the Sanzer Hasidim between his two sons, His elder son, Zvi Elimelech Halberstam
, became the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe (also known as the Sanzer Rebbe) of Netanya, and Samuel David Halberstam became the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Brooklyn.
it had become very widely discussed among Orthodox Jews that the event was propheciesed by the Rebbe in 1981 in an audio-recorded lecture.
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
and the founding rebbe
Rebbe
Rebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
of the Sanz-Klausenburg
Klausenburg (Hasidic dynasty)
Klausenburg , also known as Sanz-Klausenburg, is a Hasidic dynasty that originated in the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca , Romania....
Hasidic
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
dynasty.
Halberstam became one of the youngest rebbes in Europe, leading thousands of followers in the town of Klausenburg
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. His wife, eleven children and most of his followers were murdered by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
while he was incarcerated in several concentration camps. After the war, he rebuilt Jewish communal life in the displaced person
Displaced person
A displaced person is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration.- Origin of term :...
s camps of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
, re-established his dynasty in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and rebuilt his own family with a second marriage and the birth of seven more children.
Early life
Halberstam was born in 1905 in the town of RudnikRudnik nad Sanem
Rudnik nad Sanem is a town in Nisko County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland, with a population of 6,765 . The town is located next to the river San, hence the "nad Sanem" part of the name, which was appended to the official name in 1997...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. He was a great-grandson (through the direct male line) of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam
Chaim Halberstam
Chaim Halberstam of Sanz , known as the Divrei Chaim after his magnum opus on halakha, was a famous Hasidic Rebbe and the founder of the Sanz Hasidic dynasty....
of Sanz (the Divrei Chaim), one of the great Hasidic leaders of Polish Jewry, and a grandson of the Gorlitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Baruch Halberstam (1829–1906). His father, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Halberstam, the Rav of Rudnik, instilled in the young Yekusiel Yehudah a love of Hasidut and Torah scholarship, sharing with him stories of how the Divrei Chaim learned, prayed and conducted his tish
Tish
Tish may refer to:* Tish , a Hasidic gathering of Hassidim around their Rebbe* Tish Jones, a recurring fictional character in the television series Doctor Who...
(Shabbat
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
and Jewish holiday
Jewish holiday
Jewish holidays are days observed by Jews as holy or secular commemorations of important events in Jewish history. In Hebrew, Jewish holidays and festivals, depending on their nature, may be called yom tov or chag or ta'anit...
celebratory table).
When Yekusiel Yehudah was 13, his father died. Afterwards he studied with other leading Hasidic rebbes, including Rabbi Myer Yechiel of Ostrovtza
Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski
Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski is a town in south-central Poland with 74,211 inhabitants .Main industry is metallurgy. Ostrowiec is the capital city of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski County, part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship , previously it belonged to Kielce Voivodeship .- History:The oldest testimonies of...
, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapiro (the Munkatcher Rebbe), and his great-uncle, Rabbi Shalom Eliezer Halberstam of Ratzfert
Újfehértó
Újfehértó is a small town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary.- See also :* Teitelbaum, Satmar, Klausenberg* Nagykalló, Kalov-External links:*...
. During this period, Yekusiel Yehudah became known as the "ilui ("genius") of Rudnik,". In later years he would periodically return to Rudnik to visit with his followers, who remained loyal to him even after the appointment of his first cousin Rabbi Benyumin Teitelbaum-Halberstam as Rabbi in 1924.
In 1921, Halberstam married his second cousin, Chana Teitelbaum, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum
Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum
Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum, , , the Sigheter Rebbe, author of Atzei Chaim, was the oldest son of Rabbi Chananyah Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum the Kedushas Yom Tov...
, the Rabbi of Sighet, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. She was also a descendant of the Divrei Chaim: her grandfather, Rabbi Sholom Eliezer Halberstam, was one of the seven sons of the Sanzer Rav. The young couple lived in her father's house for the next five years.
In 1927, at the age of 22, Halberstam accepted the post of Rabbi of Klausenburg
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
, the capital city of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
(western Romania). Although he was relatively young, he impressed the largely non-religious community with his charismatic personality, wisdom, and warmth toward Jews of all backgrounds. During the 16 years that Halberstam led the Klausenberg community, he exhibited many of the qualities that would set him apart during his imprisonment by the Nazis. He slept only three hours a night, often on a synagogue bench, and he often ate only one meal a day, reserving bread for the Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
. He spent much of his day in prayer and study. His love for and faith in God was legendary. He also paid special attention to children, founding a yeshivah in which 100 students learned in Klausenberg.
The Rebbe's reputation spread throughout Romania and Hungary, and even reached Israel. In 1937 Halberstam was offered a seat on the Jerusalem rabbinical court
Beth din
A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...
. Uncertain as to whether he should accept the seat or stay with his community, Halberstam wrote to his mother in Rudnik for advice. She advised him to stay where he was, saying he was too young to accept such a position.
Holocaust period
When World War II broke out, the Jews of Hungary and Romania were not immediately affected by the German offensive against Polish and Lithuanian Jewry. However, local anti-Semitism flourished. Following the Vienna Accords of 1940, which divided Transylvania into three countries—CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
—the city of Klausenberg was taken over the Hungarian Magyars, who were Nazi collaborator
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
s. Jews were pulled off the streets and taken to forced-labor camps.
In 1941, a new law required all Jews living in Hungary to prove that their family had lived in and paid taxes in Hungary back to 1851. Suddenly thousands of Jews, including the Rebbe (who was born in Poland), were placed in jeopardy. The Rebbe, his wife and eleven children were arrested and brought to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, where the family was separated. The Rebbe was jailed with a group of leaders who were eventually sent directly to Auschwitz. Thanks to the efforts of friends and supporters, the Rebbe was released and the family returned to Klausenberg.
Despite the danger, the Rebbe refused to leave his followers and made no effort to save himself from further searches. Instead, he threw himself into helping refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s from Nazi-occupied lands and tending to his followers. Between 1941 and 1944, the Rebbe never stopped studying Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
and praying for the Jewish people.
On March 19, 1944 the Germans invaded Hungary and Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
chief Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
immediately organized the round-up, ghettoization
Ghettos in occupied Europe 1939-1944
During World War II, ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe were set up by the Third Reich in order to confine Jews and sometimes Gypsies into tightly packed areas of the cities...
, and deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The Klausenberg ghetto was established on May 1, 1944, and was liquidated via six transports to Auschwitz between late May and early June. Knowing that the Gestapo targeted community leaders first, the Rebbe hid in an open grave in a cemetery for several weeks. He then fled to the town of Banya, where he was conscripted into a forced-labor camp along with 5000 other Hungarian Jews. Though hunger was not a problem here—the barbed-wire enclosure had a back exit through which Jews could buy bread and milk from non-Jews—the Hungarian soldiers constantly badgered and searched inmates for their valuables. The Rebbe was forced to shave his beard, but he did not lose his composure or faith in God. He continued to conduct prayer services and even a Shabbat tisch
Tish (Hasidic celebration)
A tish , also spelled tisch, is a gathering of Hasidim around their Rebbe. It may consist of speeches on Torah subjects, singing of melodies known as niggunim and zemirot , with refreshments being served. Hasidim see it as a moment of great holiness...
.
Auschwitz
About a month after the Rebbe's arrival, the labor camp was liquidated. All the prisoners were loaded into cattle cars and dispatched to the Auschwitz death camp. At exactly the same time, the Rebbe's wife and nine of their children who remained with her were sent to Auschwitz on a transport from Klausenberg. They were gassed to death on June 2, 1944. Halberstam, however, survived the selection by Dr. Josef MengeleJosef Mengele
Josef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...
and was sent to work.
In Auschwitz, Halberstam seemed to live in another world. The bits of food that other prisoners hungered for and fought over were, in the Rebbe's eyes, less important than their use for mitzvot. He decided early on to try to keep every Torah commandment he could, and even the minhag
Minhag
Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, Nusach , refers to the traditional order and form of the prayers...
im that he had learned from his forefathers. Thus, he would often choose to use the bit of water he had to wash his hands for prayer, rather than to wash his hands to eat. He never touched non-kosher food and refused to eat food cooked in a non-kosher pot. Often he went hungry. His staunch faith gave spiritual strength to many. He assured his fellow inmates that God was with them in the valley of death, and would not abandon them.
In 1944, a year after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
, Halberstam was assigned to a special labor detail to clear out the ruined ghetto. He and 6000 other prisoners searched for valuables and demolished the ruins by hand and with rudimentary tools so that the Nazis could sell the bricks and steel to Polish contractors. As they beheld skeletons piled in the street, and uncovered bunkers in which Jews had died by gas or shooting, the Hungarian prisoners realized for the first time the extent of the annihilation of European Jewry.
This time the Rebbe did not shave his beard, which is considered a mark of holiness for Hasidim. He wrapped his beard and face in a handkerchief, pretending he had a toothache. This charade was accompanied by the fact that he cried all day as he worked, praying and communing with God.
When the prisoners began to hear rumors that their labor detail was about to be liquidated, they decided to try to escape rather than let the Nazis kill them. However, the Rebbe encouraged them to adopt a "wait and see" attitude. In response to one plan, in which prisoners would storm the camp gates and make a run for the forest, where they would connect with partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
s, the Rebbe advised, "Until we see that the Nazis are about to exterminate us, it is prohibited for anyone to sacrifice his life and put himself in a situation of certain death. But one must remain vigilant, and as soon as it becomes clear that the Nazis are ready to attack us, we must do everything in our power to rise up against them." The prisoners decided to follow his advice. Some time later, after most of the prisoners had been transported from Warsaw, 500 remaining prisoners did stage a revolt. The Nazis killed every one of them.
As the Russian Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
moved closer to Poland, the Germans decided to liquidate the special ghetto-clearing unit of which Halberstam was a member. All the prisoners were taken to a field outside of Warsaw, told to undress and stand near open pits, where soldiers prepared to machine-gun them. At the last moment, however, a car sped into the field. A high-ranking officer jumped out and communicated the special order from Berlin to stop the execution and send the prisoners to the Dachau concentration camp, where they were needed as slave laborers.
This unexpected reprieve, however, led to a brutal death march
Death march
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees. Those marching must walk over long distances for an extremely long period of time and are not supplied with food or water...
. For the next week, the prisoners were forced by SS soldiers wielding wooden clubs and steel bars to march 21 miles a day at top speed. In the blazing July heat, the emaciated prisoners were deprived of food and water and allowed to rest only at night. Those who couldn't keep up were shot.
On the third day, strained to the length of their endurance, the group was finally brought to rest for the night in a field surrounded by SS officers. As the guards slept, the Rebbe passed the word around: "Everyone should dig beneath himself. God's salvation comes in the blink of an eye." Each prisoner began to dig with his fingers, spoons, or pieces of wood. Remarkably, each found water, and small springs began to pop up everywhere, quenching everyone's thirst and giving them new life.
On the fifth day, the surviving marchers were packed into cattle cars for the rest of the journey to Dachau. Over the next few days, many succumbed to the overcrowding, lack of water, stench and heat in the cattle cars. Of the 6000 that set out on the death march, less than 2000 made it to Dachau alive. The Rebbe was one of the survivors.
Muldorf
From Dachau, the Rebbe was dispatched to the Muldorf Forest, where the Nazis were building an underground airport, hangar and missile batteries in order to bomb major European cities. He and thousands of other prisoners were forced to work 12-hour shifts, carrying 110-pound bags of cement from the rail depot to the cement mixers inside the hangar. Halberstam grew very weak from this difficult work. When he collapsed under his burden, he was beaten. He refused to work at all on Shabbat, which brought on more beatings. Finally, his friends persuaded the camp managers to give him to the job of camp custodianCustodian
The term Custodian may refer to:* Janitor, a person who cleans, maintains, provides security and initiates repairs or makes minor repairs to buildings.* Custodian bank, an organization responsible for safeguarding a firm's or individual's financial assets...
, allowing him to sweep and tidy the barracks while engaging in prayer the entire day.
Despite the hardships and privations, Halberstam was a beacon of strength and hope for his fellow prisoners. When one died in the infirmary—hardly a noteworthy occurrence in those days—the Rebbe stood up and eulogized him for having been a great Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
scholar in Hungary. He refused to eat non-kosher food or food cooked in the non-kosher kitchen, subsisting only on bread and water during his nine months in Muldorf. Moreover, he would not eat the bread until he had ritually washed his hands, and would often wait for days to find some water for this purpose. One prisoner watched him stand beside the cement mixer for hours at a time, collecting the drops of water that dripped from the tank.
As the war wound down in spring 1945, the Germans disbanded the Muldorf camp and sent the inmate population on yet another death march
Death march
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees. Those marching must walk over long distances for an extremely long period of time and are not supplied with food or water...
, chasing them from place to place without food or rest. Sometimes they were loaded aboard rail cars and driven to and fro. On Friday, April 27, the train suddenly stopped in a small town and SS officers jumped aboard, declaring, "You are free!" and ripping the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
badges from their uniforms. Many prisoners believed them and jumped off the train. But Halberstam told the people around him, "Today is the eve of Shabbat. Where will we go?" Then he added, "My heart tells me that not everything here is as it should be." Suddenly, SS soldiers rode in on bicycles from all directions, firing machine guns and killing hundreds of people. At the same time, American bombers dove in, strafing the field. Only Halberstam and those who stayed with him on the train escaped injury. Two days later, their real liberation
Liberty
Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
came when the train stopped near a village and the Nazi guards deserted them. American soldiers boarded the train with smiles, candy and chocolates.
The group was brought to the Feldafing
Feldafing
Feldafing is a municipality in Starnberg district, Bavaria, Germany, and is located on the west shore of Lake Starnberg, southwest of Munich.- History :...
DP camp near Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, exhausted, demoralized and penniless. Here Halberstam's leadership qualities rose to the fore and he became the spokesman and leader of the religious survivors. He immediately arranged for the proper burial of those who had died by the train tracks, and demanded kosher food for the survivors. On the first Shabbat after liberation, he led the public prayer services in a newly-opened synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
and delivered a two-hour lecture, quoting from memory scholarly writings that he had last seen years before.
Halberstam's wife and ten of his children were murdered by the Nazis during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. His eldest son survived the war, but succumbed to illness in a nearby DP camp before his father even knew that he had survived. Yet Halberstam never complained of his lot, and avoided depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
by reaching out to others. He spent much time listening to and comforting people of all ages, and brought hundreds of people back to religious observance through his passionate public speeches.
In the DP camps
In fall 1945, Halberstam moved to the new DP camp of FöhrenwaldFöhrenwald
The Föhrenwald DP camp was one of the largest in post-World War II Europe and the last to close . It was located in the section now known as Waldram in Wolfratshausen in Bavaria, Germany....
, a larger location in Munich which he turned into the center of religious Jewish life for all the DP camps. Here the Rebbe created a communal survivors organization called She'aris Hapleitah ("the surviving remnant"), which operated religious schools for boys and girls and yeshivos for young men in 19 different DP camps. In addition, Halberstam set up a kosher slaughterhouse; built a kosher mikveh; acquired and distributed religious articles such as tzitzit
Tzitzit
The Hebrew noun tzitzit is the name for specially knotted ritual fringes worn by observant Jews. Tzitzit are attached to the four corners of the tallit and tallit katan.-Etymology:The word may derive from the semitic root N-TZ-H...
, tefillin
Tefillin
Tefillin also called phylacteries are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, which are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers. Although "tefillin" is technically the plural form , it is loosely used as a singular as...
and mezuzot
Mezuzah
A mezuzah is usually a metal or wooden rectangular object that is fastened to a doorpost of a Jewish house. Inside it is a piece of parchment inscribed with specified Hebrew verses from the Torah...
; raised money to help couples marry; and established Halakhic
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
(Jewish legal) guidelines for men and women who had no proof of their spouse's death, enabling them to remarry and start new families.
On Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
, 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
visited the camps and came to see Halberstam, who had received a reputation as a "wonder rabbi". However, the Rebbe would not speak with him until he had finished his prayers. Afterwards he told the general, "I was praying before the General of Generals, King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He. The earthly general had to wait." Impressed by the rabbi's leadership and frankness, Eisenhower asked him if there was any way he could help him in his efforts. In typical fashion, Halberstam asked for a small sample of the Four Species
Four Species
The four species are four plants mentioned in the Torah as being relevant to Sukkot. Karaite Jews build their Sukkot out of branches from the four specified plants , while Talmudic Jews take three types of branches and one type of fruit which are held together and waved in a special ceremony...
so that the survivors could properly celebrate the upcoming Sukkot
Sukkot
Sukkot is a Biblical holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei . It is one of the three biblically mandated festivals Shalosh regalim on which Hebrews were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.The holiday lasts seven days...
holiday.
In spring 1946 the Rebbe made a special fund-raising trip to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on behalf of She'eris HaPleita, raising $100,000, a huge sum in those days. That fall, he embarked on another fund-raising trip and decided to resettle in New York to strengthen the American Jewish community there and to continue working for Holocaust survivors from that side of the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. He established his court in the Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
section of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
Remarriage
On Friday, 22 August 1947, he married his second wife, Chaya Nechama Ungar, the orphaned daughter of the Nitra Rav, Rabbi Shmuel Dovid UngarShmuel Dovid Ungar
Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Ungar , also known as Rabbi Samuel David Ungar, was the rabbi of the Slovakian town of Nitra and dean of the last surviving yeshiva in occupied Europe during World War II...
. The match was made by Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl
Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl
Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl was a rabbi and shtadlan...
, Rabbi Ungar's son-in-law who had survived the Holocaust and re-established his yeshiva in Somerville, New Jersey
Somerville, New Jersey
Somerville is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 12,098. It is the county seat of Somerset County....
. The tenayim were held in Weissmandl's Nitra Yeshiva, while the chuppah
Chuppah
A chuppah , also huppah, chupah, or chuppa, is a canopy under which a Jewish couple stand during their wedding ceremony. It consists of a cloth or sheet, sometimes a tallit, stretched or supported over four poles, or sometimes manually held up by attendants to the ceremony. A chuppah symbolizes the...
and dancing were held at Yeshivas She'aris Hapleitah, the Rebbe's yeshiva in Somerville.
Although the Klausenberger Rebbe had gone to great lengths to allow agunos
Agunah
Agunah ; literally 'anchored or chained') is a halachic term for a Jewish woman who is "chained" to her marriage. The classic case of this, is a man who has left on a journey, and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is MIA...
and widowers to remarry after the Holocaust, relying on testimonies from people who had seen their spouses being led "to the left" in the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
selections rather than documented evidence, the Rebbe did not rely on the testimonies of his first wife's death. Instead, he sought the approval of 100 rabbis and sat on the ground for half an hour in mourning
Bereavement in Judaism
Bereavement in Judaism is a combination of minhag and mitzvah derived from Judaism's classical Torah and rabbinic texts...
for his first wife before he remarried.
He and his second wife had five daughters and two sons. His sons, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Halberstam and Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Halberstam, succeeded him, respectively, as Sanzer Rebbe of Netanya and Klausenberger-Sanz Rebbe of New York.
Kiryat Sanz, Netanya
The Rebbe's decision to move to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was not a permanent one. Throughout his travails in the Holocaust, he always had in mind the goal of settling in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Toward that end, he established the Kiryat Sanz
Kiryat Sanz, Netanya
Kiryat Sanz is a Haredi neighborhood located at the northwestern end of Netanya, Israel. Founded in 1956 by the previous Klausenburger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, who established his court here in 1960, Kiryat Sanz is the world center for Sanz-Klausenburg Hasidism...
neighborhood in the beachside city of Netanya
Netanya
Netanya is a city in the Northern Centre District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is located north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa between the 'Poleg' stream and Wingate Institute in the south and the 'Avichail' stream in the north.Its of beaches have made the...
in 1956. In so doing, he was the first Rebbe to establish a Haredi
Haredi Judaism
Haredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
neighborhood in an Israeli development town. Over the next few years, he raised money for the establishment of key institutions to serve this neighborhood, including girls' and boys' schools and yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
s, an orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
, and an old-age home. He also laid the cornerstone for a community hospital to be run according to the strictest standards of Halakha
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
. This hospital, which would eventually take the name of two bankers from Switzerland, the Laniado brothers, whose estate provided a $300,000 donation for the Rebbe, opened in 1975; today it encompasses two medical centers, a children’s hospital, a geriatric center and a nursing school, serving a regional population of over 450,000.
The Rebbe moved to Israel in 1960, settling in Netanya and directing both the community there and in Williamsburg. He also founded battei medrash
Beth midrash
Beth Midrash refers to a study hall, whether in a synagogue, yeshiva, kollel, or other building. It is distinct from a synagogue, although many synagogues are also used as batei midrash and vice versa....
and schools in other cities in Israel, and established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood of Jerusalem as well.
In 1968 he founded yet another Sanz community in Union City, New Jersey
Union City, New Jersey
Union City is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census the city had a total population of 66,455. All of the city is on land, an area of...
, and afterwards divided his time between that community and his residence in Netanya.
Mifal HaShas
In addition to his achievements in rebuilding the Sanz-Klausenberg dynasty and establishing many communal institutions, one of the Rebbe's most far-reaching accomplishments was his establishment of "Mifal HaShas" ("Talmud Factory") in 1982. This worldwide project encourages thousands of Jewish men and boys to study copious amounts of TalmudTalmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
and Shulchan Aruch
Shulchan Aruch
The Shulchan Aruch also known as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most authoritative legal code of Judaism. It was authored in Safed, Israel, by Yosef Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later...
and complete written tests on 20-30 pages per month in return for a monthly stipend
Stipend
A stipend is a form of salary, such as for an internship or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from a wage or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work performed, instead it represents a payment that enables somebody to be exempt partly or wholly from waged or salaried...
. Mifal HaShas continues to operate today worldwide. The Israeli and European operations are under the leadership of Zvi Elimelech Halberstam
Zvi Elimelech Halberstam
Zvi Elimelech Halberstam is the present Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe of Netanya, Israel. He is also known as the Sanzer Rebbe. He is the eldest son of Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, the first Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe, who in his will divided the leadership of the Klausenburger Hasidim between his...
, the Rebbe's oldest son and current Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Israel. The North American operations are under the leadership of Samuel David Halberstam, the Rebbe's son and current Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
The Rebbe recorded his Torah novellae in Shefa Chayim and She'eilos Uteshuvos Divrei Yatziv.
Halberstam died on June 18, 1994, and was buried in Netanya. In his will, he divided leadership of the Sanzer Hasidim between his two sons, His elder son, Zvi Elimelech Halberstam
Zvi Elimelech Halberstam
Zvi Elimelech Halberstam is the present Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe of Netanya, Israel. He is also known as the Sanzer Rebbe. He is the eldest son of Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, the first Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe, who in his will divided the leadership of the Klausenburger Hasidim between his...
, became the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe (also known as the Sanzer Rebbe) of Netanya, and Samuel David Halberstam became the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Brooklyn.
Prophecy of Mumbai Attack
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks2008 Mumbai attacks
The 2008 Mumbai attacks were more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by Islamist attackers who came from Pakistan...
it had become very widely discussed among Orthodox Jews that the event was propheciesed by the Rebbe in 1981 in an audio-recorded lecture.
See also
- Haredi JudaismHaredi JudaismHaredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
- Hasidic JudaismHasidic JudaismHasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
- Klausenberg (Hasidic dynasty)
- Sanz (Hasidic dynasty)Sanz (Hasidic dynasty)The Sanz Hasidic dynasty was founded by Rabbi Chaim Halberstam Rabbi of Nowy Sącz , author of Divrei Chaim and a son-in-law of Rabbi Boruch Frankel Thumim , Rabbi of Lipník nad Bečvou , author of Boruch Taam.-Founder of dynasty:The Divrei Chaim was a disciple of Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz, who was...
Sources
- Lifschitz, Judah. The Klausenberger Rebbe: The War Years. Targum PressTargum PressTargum Press is an Orthodox Jewish English-language publishing company based in Jerusalem. It claims to be the third largest Judaica publisher after Artscroll and Feldheim. In addition to publishing books on Jewish law and philosophy, translations of classic texts, and fiction, it has played a...
, Inc., 2003. ISBN 1-56871-219-7 - Rabinowicz, Tzvi M. Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement and Its Masters in the Holy Land. New York: Jason AronsonJason AronsonJason Aronson is an American publisher of books in the field of psychotherapy. Topics dealt with in these books include child therapy, family therapy, couple therapy, object relations therapy, play therapy, depression, eating disorders, personality disorders, substance abuse, sexual abuse, stress,...
, 2000. ISBN 0-7657-6068-1