Rabbi Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinovich
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Rabbi Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinovich (1913-1999), or 'Reb Burechel' as he was known, was born into a distinguished chasidic dynasty and was himself a renowned Hasidic rebbe until he renounced his position following the turmoil of World War II. His father, Reb Noson Dovid (1868-1930), was the Partzever Rebbe, the eldest son of Reb Yaakov Yitzchak of Biala (1847-1905). His mother was the daughter of Reb Moshe Leib Shapira of Stryzov (1850-1916) of the Munkatch dynasty. In 1933 Reb Boruch married the only daughter of Reb Chaim Elazar Spira of Munkacs (1872-1937), his mother's first cousin, a union that set him on course to succeed his father-in-law as rabbi and 'Admor' of Munkacs. His wedding - attended by some 30,000 guests - was one of the grandest and most celebrated chasidic weddings of the era that immediately preceded World War 2, and film footage of the wedding, shot by news teams who were there to record the event, were widely seen across the world. Reb Boruch's elevation to the position as rov and rebbe of Munkacs in 1937 following the death of his father-in-law was rudely disrupted by the beginning of the war, when he was unceremoniously deported to Poland. He was miraculously released soon afterwards and he promptly moved with his family from Munkacs to Budapest, where he managed to obtain visas and escape to Palestine. There he endeavoured to rebuild his shattered life, but as well as having to deal with the tragedy of the Holocaust and the deaths and disruption it had caused, his wife - always of frail health - died in April 1945. In 1946 Reb Boruch tried and failed to become the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, and shortly thereafter he moved to São Paulo, Brazil, together with his second wife, in this way totally cutting himself off from his surviving chasidim and from his position as head of one of pre-war Hungary's pre-eminent chasidic dynasties. In addition, as a result of a change of theological direction, Reb Boruch had become sympathetic to Zionism and the State of Israel, concepts that had been anathema to his father-in-law and most of pre-War Hungarian orthodoxy. The Munkacs chasidim who had survived the war were devastated by his refusal to lead them and many of them never forgave him for turning his back on them and for diverging so dramatically from the weltanschaung espoused by his esteemed father-in-law. Reb Boruch returned to Israel in 1963 to become chief rabbi of Holon. He later moved to Petach Tikva where he headed a small Beis Hamidrash until his death in 1999. Two of his sons, with whom he had strained relations, returned in adulthood to the Munkatch fold. Reb Moshe Leib Rabinovich is the Rebbe of Munkacs and resides in Boro Park, NY, and his brother Reb Yaakov is the Rebbe of Dinov in Flatbush, NY. Reb Boruch was a great scholar of Talmud and halacha and his encyclopedic knowledge of traditional Jewish sources was widely reputed. In addition to this he was also a gifted orator, although his relative obscurity and personal desire to remain out of the limelight meant that he rarely spoke outside of his own immediate vicinity.
