Naftali Halberstam; Bobover rebbe
Hyfler/Rosner
BY JEROME BURDI AND PETE BOWLES
Newsday
March 23, 2005
The Grand Rabbi Naftali Halberstam, a Holocaust survivor who
helped his father rebuild the Bobov sect of Hasidic Jews,
died Wednesday in Brooklyn.
Thousands gathering in Borough Park to mourn the passing of
Halberstam, 74, who had Parkinson's disease and was in poor
health since suffering a heart attack a year ago. He died at
Maimonides Medical Center.
Halberstam, who was born in Poland and was in a
concentration camp in Siberia as a teenager, became grand
rabbi after the death in 2000 of his father, Grand Rabbi
Shlomo, who was 92.
Funeral services were held last night at the Bobover
Synagogue. The rabbi is to be buried next to his father in
Washington Cemetery in South Brunswick, N.J.
"Hundreds of the faithful were at the synagogue today
praying for a miracle, but it didn't happen," said Albert
Freedman of Borough Park, a community leader and member of
another sect, the Satmars.
At the synagogue last night, mourners spoke lovingly of the
rabbi.
"There aren't words in the dictionary that can describe the
loss," said Charles Rosen, 29. He said it would be difficult
to predict where the sect will go now. "We have gone through
a lot of hard times, and will come through again," he said.
A family friend, 47, who declined to give his name, talked
about the decades of leadership in New York of the rabbi and
his father. "He was his father's right-hand man," he said of
Naftali Halberstam. "He did everything. He was the builder.
There is a vacuum now. His leadership will be missed."
"He was a righteous person, a scholar," said Abraham Haim,
15. "He knew a lot. It is a tragedy. The whole community is
in an uproar."
"You cry in the past and hope for the future," said one
mourner, Yisroel Goldstein, 29, who said he often dined with
the rabbi. "He was a very bright, knowledgeable person. He
had a comment on any subject you brought up."
Naftali Halberstam became grand rabbi at his father's
funeral, which drew thousands.
Officials said there is no plan in place for successor, but
it is expected that the rabbi's younger brother, Rabbi Ben
Zion Halberstam, the sect's junior rabbi, will be appointed
grand rabbi.
Shlomo Halberstam and Naftali Halberstam came to the United
States after World War II, during which most of their
relatives were killed. The Bobov sect was nearly wiped out
by the Nazis. Shlomo Halberstam lead the rebirth of the
sect. The Bobovs are among dozens of Hasidic sects, which
include the larger Satmars and Lubavitchers.
Naftali Halberstam said his father established the first
Bobov study center in New York, on the Upper West Side. The
sect moved to Crown Heights and later Borough Park.
robertc...@yahoo.com
language "rabbi"? Yiddish and Hebrew? Or have I got them reversed?
Bob Champ
Hyfler/Rosner
<robertc...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1111642210.2...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Incidentally, from what language does "rebbe" come, and
> from what
> language "rabbi"? Yiddish and Hebrew? Or have I got them
> reversed?
>
>
rebbe is Yiddish
(implying a closer attachment, practically a dear of
endearment)
rav is Hebrew
rabbi is English (maybe version of the Aramaic rabi)
Hyfler/Rosner
NY Times obituary ~
March 25, 2005
Naftali Halberstam Dies at 74; Bobov Hasidim's Grand Rabbi
By MARGALIT FOX
Naftali Halberstam, the grand rabbi of the Bobov Hasidic
sect, who continued his father's efforts to rebuild a
community nearly eradicated by the Holocaust, died on
Wednesday at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. He was
74.
The cause was apparently a lung problem, a spokeswoman for
Dov Hikind, the state assemblyman who represents Borough
Park and is closely allied to its Hasidic communities, said
yesterday. Rabbi Halberstam had had a variety of health
problems for the last several years, according to several
members of the Brooklyn Bobover community.
Descended from a rabbinic dynasty, Rabbi Halberstam became
the Bobover Rebbe in 2000, after the death of his father,
Grand Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam. Based in Borough Park, the
Bobov are today one of the largest of Brooklyn's many
Hasidic sects, comprising 1,800 to 2,000 families. There are
also Bobover communities in Canada, England, Israel and
elsewhere.
A refugee from Hitler's Europe, Rabbi Halberstam settled in
New York after World War II. There, he assisted his father
in rebuilding the Bobov sect, which had been almost
completely obliterated during the war.
"Naftali was in a sense the last family of that Holocaust
generation," said Samuel Heilman, a distinguished professor
of sociology at Queens College, in an interview yesterday.
"I think the best way of referring to him is, he lived in
the shadow of his father. His father was such a
larger-than-life figure, it's sort of like Isaac following
Abraham. The most important contribution that he made was in
terms of continuity."
Like other Hasidim, the Bobov practice an ecstatic brand of
Judaism, born in Eastern Europe in the 18th century, that
centers on a charismatic spiritual leader, often called a
tzaddik (Hebrew for "righteous one") and on an individual's
direct relationship with God. The sect originated in Bobov,
a village in Galicia (now southeastern Poland), where Rabbi
Halberstam's forebears established the dynasty.
Mourning for the rabbi overlaps Purim, the holiday
commemorating the deliverance of Persia's Jews. The Bobov
are known for their elaborate celebrations of the holiday,
which began last night.
Naftali Halberstam was born in Poland in 1930. His mother
and two siblings died in the Holocaust, and toward the end
of the war, when Naftali was a teenager, his father secured
passage for him to Palestine. Not knowing whether his
father, who remained in Europe, had survived the war,
Naftali lived for several years in Palestine, where he
studied for the rabbinate. In the late 1940's, he moved to
New York, where he was reunited with his father.
Rabbi Halberstam is survived by his wife, Hessie; two
daughters; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
according to members of his congregation.
Although the next Bobover Rebbe has not been chosen, Rabbi
Halberstam's younger half-brother, Rabbi Benzion Halberstam,
is expected to succeed him, several members of the community
said.
"Unlike what happens in royal families where they say, 'The
king is dead; long live the king,' it is the Hasidim who in
a sense have to agree upon the leader," said Professor
Heilman, the author of many books on Judaism. "A lot will
depend upon if there are any 'pretenders to the throne.' I
don't think that's going to happen."