By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Yisroel Yosef Gruzman, who one from the early Chabad Shluchim to revive Judaism in the former Soviet Union, passed away on Thursday night, 7 Adar I 5784.
He was 67 and suffered from an illness.
Rabbi Gruzman was born to his parents, Rabbi Meir Tzvi Gruzman, Rosh Yeshiva in the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch in Kfar Chabad, and his mother Mrs. Chaya Tzivia Gruzman (new Schneerson).
He learned in his youth at the schools of Kfar Chabad and then in the Chabad Yeshivas in Lod and Kfar Chabad.
He married his wife Mrs. Tamar Gruzman, daughter of R’ Berel Rubinstein, from the brave Chassidim in the Chabad underground operation in Communist Russia.
Rabbi and Mrs. Gruzman followed those footsteps and went on Shlichus to Russia, where the Jewish community was slowly emerging from the times of the Iron Curtain.
Mrs. Gruzman was a respected educator and she directed the Jewish school in S. Petersburg and later the Judaic studies in a school in Moscow.
For more than a decade, the couple led the Jewish community in Minsk, Belarus, and operated the Jewish school there.
He was predeceased by his wife. In recent years he lived in Kfar Chabad.
The funeral was held on Friday.
He is survived by his children Rabbi Shmuel Gruzman – Ashkelon, Israel; Mrs. Sarah Marzel – Moscow, Russia; Mrs. Raizy Kook – Lod, Israel; Mendy Gruzman – Kfar Chabad; grandchildren.
He is survived by his siblings Rabbi Yitzchok Gruzman – Rishon L’tzion, Rabbi Shmuel Gruzman – Migdal, Israel; Rabbi Sholom Ber Gruzman – Vienna, Austria; Rabbi Shneur Zalman Gruzman – Tzfas, Rabbi Moshe Gruzman – Rishon L’tzion; nieces and nephews.
Baruch Dayan Ha’emes.
I learned a lot from him during my time in Belarus.
He will be missed!
Moshiach Now!
Survived also by his mother, and sisters
Survived by his mother Rebbentzin Chaya tzivyah Gruzman and his two sisters Shoshi Zajac – S.Paulo Brazil and Yaffi Reichman – Petach Tikvah Israel.
Tamar Gruzman is the daughter of Berel Rubinson