Last week, hundreds participated in the beginning of the writing of a Sefer Torah and a Yartzeit meal in honor of the Shliach, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Deutsch obm, who was brutally murdered last year.
Rabbi Mendel was murdered a few days after Rosh Hashanah 5777, when he was mercilessly beaten in a Ukraine train station, within an inch of his life. On Chol Hamoed Pesach of that year, he died from his injuries. He was only 64 years old.
On the afternoon of his first yartzeit, family members and friends went up to his burial place on Har Hazeitim. Afterwards the main event began at Zvhill Halls in Jerusalem, with the participation of Chassidic leaders, Rabbis and community leaders.
The event began with the writing of the Sefer Torah, followed by a festive meal.
Rabbi Deutsch’s son, Rabbi Shneur Deutsch who is the Shliach of the city of Minsk, Belarus, as well as Rabbi Deutsch’s grandson, HaTamim Uziel Friedland, finished off a tractate of Mishnah. The event concluded with a Chassidic Farbrengen.
One of the speakers at the event was the brother of the departed, HaGaon HaChassid Rabbi Chaim Shalom Deutsch, the head of Kollel Tzemach Tzedek. He praised his brother’s leadership, when he was a Shliach of the Rebbe in Auberville, France, where he opened and developed the Shneur Institutions.
Afterwards he immigrated to Israel and thereafter founded the Hall of the Alter Rebbe in Haditch. He continued by saying that when one learns a good attribute from the deceased, it brings an elevation to the soul of the deceased. In every situation, R’ Mendel remained happy and helped others. From him we must learn to always be happy and help others. He concluded his talk by saying that R’ Mendel’s only concern was in holy matters and in the fulfilment of his Shlichus of the Rebbe.
The Minister of Interior, Rabbi Aryeh Deri, dear friend of R’ Mendel, spoke and said how during their many years of friendship, R’ Mendel always greeted him with happiness and was always concerned for the wellbeing of the Jewish people.
Many Chassidic leaders, Rabbis, community leaders, friends and acquaintances of Rav Mendel Deutsch participated:
HaAdmur of Pinsk Karlin, HaAdmur Mevakshei Emunah, HaAdmur MeZweiel, HaRav HaGaon Shmuel Rabinowitz, the Rav of the Western Wall and other holy places, HaRav HaGaon Yehuda Rabinowitz, Av Beit Din of Jerusalem, HaGaon Rabbi Naftali Nussbaum, HaRav HaGaon Bumi Friedland, one of the Rosh Yeshivah’s from Kiryat Gat, HaRav HaGaon Shneur Deutsch, Rosh Yeshivah Anshei Maamad, Rabbi Moshe Deutsch, the head of the Institutions of Chasdei Yosef, The Minister of Interior, HaRav Aryeh Deri, Deputy Minister of Education MK Rav Meir Porush, Rabbi Levi Wilimovsky, director of the Chabad Institutions in Migdal HaEmek, Member of the city council, Rabbi Yaakov Halprin, Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Deutsch, director of Kollel Chabad in Jerusalem, Rabbi Tuvia Zilbershtrom, Rabbi Yaakov Grossman, Rabbi Meir Dovid Bergman.
I recall this special neshama from yeshiva in Kfar Chabad in 5728-29.
As an America bochur with limited skills, he helped me & was encouraging. I was honored to assist him in Florida when he was in France perhaps 30 years ago. Genuine fine person.
Yehee zichro baruch!
May the family be comforted. Only Hahsem can do that with such a sad tragedy. I dont know them but for some reason I think of them often and I am so sad for them. What a horrible ugly reminder of anti semitism.
ad mosai ! May we all be reunited with our loved ones!
This was a tragedy for Lubavich, just like Mumbai. Good old fashioned anti semetism!
We all must see the loss for this family as if it is one for our own family, just like after Mumbai we were so broken by the cries of little moshe. He too was murdered because he was a Jew.