Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinowicz

Jewish leaderPredecessorChaim Elazar SpiraSuccessorMoshe Leib Rabinovich, Yizchok Yakov RabinovichBegan1937Ended1946Main workBinas NevonimDynastyMunkacs

Grand Rabbi Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinovich (1914–1997), was a member of a chassidic dynasty, and succeeded to the title Munkacser Rebbe.

Early years

Boruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel was born in Russia in 1914 to Rabbi Nosson Dovid Rabinovich (1868–1930), the Partzever rebbe, and Yitta Spira. His paternal grandfather was Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov of Biala and his maternal grandfather was Rabbi Moshe Leib Spira of Stryzow (1850–1916), of the Munkacs dynasty. He was engaged to his intended bride at the age of 11. When he was 13, his father-in-law-to-be, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira of Munkacs, took him on a visit to the Holy Land.

Marriage

In 1933 Rabinowicz married Frima Chaya Rivka, the only daughter of his mother's first cousin, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira, the Munkacser dynasty's rebbe, also known as the 'Minchas Elazar'. This set him on course to succeed his father-in-law as rabbi and rebbe of Munkacs. His wedding in 1933 was attended by 20-30,000 guests. Film of the wedding is on the web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and is on display at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.

Rabbi of Munkacs

Rabinowicz became rebbe of Munkacs in 1937 after his father-in-law's death. At the beginning of World War II he was deported to Poland but released soon afterwards and moved with his family to Budapest, where he to obtained visas and escaped to Palestine, where his wife died in April 1945.

Post-war

In 1946, Rabinowicz tried to become the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, but withdrew from the race. In 1947, he moved to São Paulo, Brazil.^[1] He had become sympathetic to Zionism and the State of Israel, unlike his father-in-law. The Munkatcher chasidim who had survived the war replaced him as Munkatcher rebbe with his third son Moshe Leib Rabinovich, who lives in Brooklyn.^{[citation needed]}

Rabinowicz returned to Israel in 1963 to become Chief Rabbi of Holon. He later moved to Petah Tikva where he headed a small Beis Hamedrash until his death in 1997. His fourth son, Rabbi Yizchok Yakov Rabinovich, is the rebbe of Dinov and also resides in Brooklyn.

In 1996, Rabinowicz published his works Divrei Nevonim and Binat Nevonim.

See also

• Munkacs (Hasidic dynasty)

References

External links

• Wedding in Munkacs Archived 2012-02-04 at the Wayback Machine