By COLlive reporter
Mrs. Freida Levin, the oldest living resident of the Kfar Chabad village who survived Communism and Israel’s early years, passed away on Wednesday, 3 Shvat 5780.
She was 100.
Mrs. Levin was born in 1919 in the Russian city of Kremenchuk (today in central Ukraine) to her parents R’ Yechiel Yosef and Sheina Rivkin.
She was raised in the Gomel, a city in southeastern Belarus, where she was forced to enroll in the Soviet public school which was anti-religious.
“It was a time of famine and severe deprivation,” she said in an interview with her granddaughter. “The school provided free nutritious meals, but they were not kosher, of course. Although the hunger was very distressing to me, I didn’t put into my mouth anything besides the bread which I brought home for the family.”
After completing 10 years of school, she went to university where she studied biology. She enrolled as an “external student” so that she would not have to stay in the dormitory with non-Jewish Russians and would not have to study on Shabbos.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, her family fled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where a growing Jewish population gathered. “It was considered a safer area,” she said.
During the war, she got married to R’ Binyomin Levin, a Lubavitcher chossid who was born in the Russian town of Nevel. “The situation during this period was unbearable,” she recalled. “There was a hunger and there were dangerous and infectious diseases which killed many.”
In 1946, as soon as the war ended, Russian authorities allowed Polish civilians to return to their native country. Her parents seized the opportunity and used forged Polish documentation to smuggle their family.
“We were deeply fearful about being caught because our fate would be bad and bitter,” she said, but the family made the trip nevertheless to escape from the equally dangerous fate waiting for those remaining in Russia. “We traveled in freight trains intended to transport cattle,” she said. “It was very crowded and with poor conditions.”
After crossing Russia’s borders, they were transported to a refugee camp, also called a “DP camp” in Austria, and were later moved to Bazon in France.
Two years later, they immigrated to the land of Israel on the “Galila” ship. “The density was terrible and many of the passengers suffered from seasickness,” she said. “It was a week of difficult and exhausting sailing at the end of which we merited to arrive in Eretz Yisroel. Indeed, despite all the hardships and the difficult journeys we went through, we here in Israel are happy.”
Her family was from the founding residents of the Chassidic village of Kfar Chabad in central Israel. Her brothers, R’ Hirshel Rivkin, R’ Zusha Rivkin and R’ Chaim Rivkin built and sustained the Beis Menachem Shul and other institutions in Kfar Chabad.
Her husband worked as a teacher in the Chabad school in Jaffa, was a baal menagen and founded the Hakafos Shniyot celebration in Kfar Chabad following Simchas Torah.
His tragic passing at the age of 44 has left his wife and children devastated. Accustomed to hardship and resolute in her faith, Mrs. Levin raised her family and worked as the dedicated housemother of the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim in Kfar Chabad. For years later, bochurim recalled her kindness and care for them during their Yeshiva years.
She is survived by her children Mrs. Chaya Lifshitz – Kfar Chabad; Mrs. Rochel Green – Kfar Chabad; Mrs. Doba Lerer – Kiryat Malachi; Mrs. Chana Sukharenko – Kfar Chabad; Mrs. Rivka Zaklikowsky – Crown Heights; R’ Feitel Levin – Crown Heights.; grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
She was predeceased by her siblings R’ Hirshel Rivkin, Mrs. Gita Ceitlin, R’ Zusha Rivkin, Mrs. Risha Rochel Reichman and R’ Chaim Rivkin.
Her funeral will be held on Wednesday from her home in Kfar Chabad. She will be buried in the cemetery of Tzfas. Condolences can be emailed to sam@jazcm.com
Baruch Dayan Haemes.
