Reb Yisachar Tzvi (Hershel) Gluck, a distinguished Spinka chossid who learned in Lubavitch Yeshiva – Tomchei Temimim in Brooklyn, passed away.
He was 83.
R’ Gluck was a descendant of prominent Zidichoiver chassidim, nephews of Rav Aizikel of Zidichoiv. He survived the war as an infant, and was raised by his maternal grandfather in Crown Heights, where he became close with the Spinka Rebbe—a connection that would endure and continue throughout the years, and into the next generation, with the current Spinka Rebbe.
He learned in Lubavitcher yeshiva Tomchei Temimim at Bedford and Dean as a youth, and later he was a student at 770. In a video of him receiving a dollar from the Rebbe, he informs the Rebbe that he is a former student of Tomechei Temimim, to which the Rebbe replies, “Hashem should help you that you should not say that you were a student, but that you stayed a student.”
After his marriage, he settled in Boro Park, and became a pillar of the Spinka chassidus. He would regularly collect funds for the Spinka institutions. This included an annual pilgrimage to Cleveland, Ohio, where a number of survivors, Spinka chassidim from prewar Hungary, had settled. Reb Hershel would travel along with the Spinka Rebbe, and make the rounds with him to these Spinka families in Cleveland.
Reb Hershel had a tradition of being one of the first people in shul every Shabbos morning, and to recite the birchos hashachar before the Spinka Rebbe every Shabbos morning.
Reb Hershel was known as an askan and a pillar of the Boro Park community and of the Spinka chassidus in particular—serving as a true example of an ehrliche Yid.
The Levaya was held at Shomrei Hadas Chapels on Sunday morning, and he was laid to rest on the Spinka Chelka in Deans New Jersey.
