Biography of the Sanz-Klausenberg Rebbe

Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam (January 10, 1905 – June 18, 1994) was the founding Rebbe of the Sanz-Klausenberg Chasidic dynasty.

Rabbi 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 moved to the United States and later to Israel. The Rebbe rebuilt Jewish communal life in the displaced persons camps of Western Europe, re-established his dynasty in the United States and Israel, founded a Sanz community in the United States and in Israel, established a hospital in Israel run according to Jewish law, and rebuilt his own family with a second marriage and the birth of seven children.

Early Life

Reb Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam was born in 1905 in the town of Rudnik, Poland. On his paternal side, he was a great-grandson of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (the Divrei Chaim), one of the great Chasidic 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 Chasidus and Torah scholarship. When Reb Yekusiel Yehudah was 13, his father passed away. Afterwards he studied with other leading Chasidic Rebbes, including Rabbi Meir Yechiel of Ostrovtza, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapiro (the Munkatcher Rebbe), and his great-uncle, Rabbi Shalom Eliezer Halberstam of Ratzfert. He became known as the "ilui (genius) of Rudnik".

In 1921 the Rebbe married his second cousin, Chana Teitelbaum, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum, the Rav of Sighet. In 1927, at the age of 22, Reb Yekusiel Yehuda accepted the post of Rav in Klausenburg, Romania. Although he was relatively young, he impressed the community with his charismatic personality, wisdom, and warmth toward Jews of all backgrounds. During the 16 years he spent there, he slept only three hours a night, often on a shul bench, and often ate only one meal a day, reserving bread for Shabbos. He founded a Yeshivah of 100 students. In 1937 he was offered a seat on the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court but his mother advised him to stay with his community.

Holocaust Era

Following the Second Vienna Award of September 1940, Northern Transylvania including Klausenburg became part of Hungary. In 1941, a new law required all Jews living in Hungary to prove their families had lived and paid taxes there back in 1851; the Rebbe (born in Poland) was placed in jeopardy. The family was arrested and brought to Budapest; the Rebbe was eventually released. Despite the danger, he refused to leave his followers, throwing himself into helping refugees from Nazi-occupied lands.

On March 19, 1944, the Germans invaded Hungary and Eichmann organized the round-up and deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The Klausenburg ghetto was established on May 1, 1944 and liquidated via six transports. The Rebbe hid in an open grave for several weeks, then fled to Nagybánya where he was conscripted into a forced-labor camp.

Auschwitz

About a month after the Rebbe's arrival, the Arrow Cross took over Hungary. The inmates underwent selection and he was ferried to Auschwitz. His wife and nine of their children had been sent earlier and did not survive. The Rebbe survived, attempting to remain fully observant in inhuman conditions and to encourage his fellow prisoners. He never touched non-kosher food and refused to eat food cooked in a non-kosher pot. His staunch faith gave spiritual strength to many.

In late 1944 he was assigned to a special labor detail clearing the ruined Warsaw Ghetto. He did not shave his beard, wrapping his face in a handkerchief and pretending to have a toothache, crying all day as he worked. As the Russian Army moved closer, the Germans decided to liquidate the unit; at the last moment a high-ranking officer arrived and read a special order from Berlin to send the prisoners to Dachau as slave laborers. This unexpected reprieve led to a brutal death march of 21 miles a day in the July heat. On the third day, the Rebbe instructed the prisoners to dig beneath where they sat — remarkably each found water. Of the 6,000 who set out, less than 2,000 made it to Dachau alive.

Muldorf

From Dachau the Rebbe was dispatched to the Muldorf Forest, where prisoners were forced to work 12-hour shifts carrying 110-pound bags of cement. The Rebbe grew very weak and refused to work on Shabbos. His friends persuaded the camp managers to give him the job of camp custodian. He refused to eat non-kosher food, subsisting only on bread and water during the nine months in Muldorf — and would not eat the bread until he had ritually washed his hands, often waiting days to find water. As the war wound down in spring 1945, the Germans sent the inmates on yet another death march. On Friday, April 27, the train stopped and SS officers declared "You are free!" — the Rebbe sensed something was wrong; soon SS soldiers rode in firing machine guns. Two days later actual liberation came when American soldiers boarded the train.

In the DP Camps

In the fall of 1945 the Rebbe moved to the new DP camp of Föhrenwald near Munich, turning it into the center of religious Jewish life for all the DP camps. He created a communal survivors' organization called Sh'earit ha-Pletah ("the surviving remnant"), which operated religious schools for boys and girls and yeshivos for young men in 19 different DP camps. He set up a kosher slaughterhouse, built a kosher mikveh, distributed tzitzit, tefillin and mezuzot, raised money for couples to marry, and established halachic guidelines enabling agunos and widowers to remarry.

On Yom Kippur 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited and came to see the Rebbe — who 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." Eisenhower asked how he could help; the Rebbe asked for the Four Species so that survivors could properly celebrate Sukkos. In 1946 the Rebbe established his court in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Remarriage

On Friday, August 22, 1947, he married his second wife, Chaya Nechama Ungar, the orphaned daughter of the Nitra Rav, Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Ungar zt"l. The Rebbe sought the approval of 100 rabbis and sat on the ground for half an hour in mourning for his first wife before remarrying. The Rebbe and his wife had five daughters and two sons. His sons, Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Halberstam shlit"a and Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Halberstam shlit"a, succeeded him as Sanzer Rebbe of Israel and Klausenberger Rebbe of Boro Park.