BDE: Reb Yehoshua Tzvi Weiser, z”l

We are saddened to inform you of the passing of Reb Shia Weiser, z”l, a longtime member of the Boro Park community. He was in his early 70’s, and had recently been diagnosed with an illness. 

Reb Shia was beloved and admired wherever he went. A talmidchochom and a ba’al chessed, he went about his life with humility and b’hatznei’ah leches. 

He practically spent his entire life around the same few square blocks in Boro Park. Born to Holocaust survivors from Hungary in the years following the Churban, he was from the “Bikurim,” the first generation of the rebuilding.

The family davened in the Oivar Shtiebel on 45th Street, and the Weiser boys went to learn in Torah Vodaath. This is where Reb Shia absorbed an Ahavas Torah. In Beis Medrash Elyon, among the great tsaddikim and talmidei Chachomim of that special place, he absorbed Ahavas Torah, and developed into a lifelong Talmid Chochom. 

After his marriage to, tbl”ch, Mrs. Sarah (nee Ruttner), the couple settled in Boro Park, on 16th Avenue and 46th Street. He was a fixture in the Stoliner and Novominsker Shuls—in both of which he was beloved and admired. 

This loss has hit the mispalelim of the Stoliner Shul, where the niftar davened for four decades, particularly hard. Many of the mispalelim knew him for this long, and the younger generation grew up in the presence of a Yid filled with eidelkeit and ehrlichkeit. 

“He was a meshuna’dige ba’al chessed, b’hatzneiah leches,” recalled, ybl”ch, Reb Chaim Donn, who davaned and learned one table over from Reb Shia.  

“It is only now coming to light the many chassodim that he did in the queietest manner during his lifetime,” Reb Chaim continues, and he relates: “For many years, we had Reb Yitzchok Smith (Nafcha) who was alone in the world. When Reb Shia found out that he was sleeping in the Ezras Noshim in the cold winter nights, he brought him a quilt and food. The same went for the meshulachim from Eretz Yisroel… he would always be bringing them kugel on Erev Shabbos.” 

He was not a man of means… but he scraped together his ma’aser money and sent generous sums to Eretz Yisroel multiple times a year. 

Reb Yonasan Rosenbaum, the longtime gabbai of the StolinerShul, was especially close to Reb Shia. He relates that Reb Shia’s tzeddakah was not limited to aniyei Eretz Yisroel. “When people in Shul would make weddings, he would come over to me, and quietly hand over a sum of money. No one ever knew about this. He was a Torah’dige person, an Ehrliche person, and—having spent time in the presence of gitte Yidden, he always had an insightful vort to say over.” 

Mispalelim in Stolin were traumatized seven years ago on Pesach morning, when Reb Shia collapsed toward the end of davening. He was being watched from Above, as he was in the presence of a number of Hatzolah members, and an entire tzibbur who immediately began davening for him. He survived that severe aneurism, and they were once again inspired to see how he was soon back—albeit with a walker—never missing a tefillah in Shul. “These years were a gift… to him and to us,” relates a mispalel. 

He was deeply devoted to his wife, tbl”ch, who is homebound. “His greatest worry when he was recently diagnosed was, ‘who will care for my wife…’” relates a family member. “He went his entire life without making a single enemy,” they added. 

The levaya will take place this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. at ShomreiHadas. 

Yehi Zichro Baruch.

 Watch Live the Levaya of  Reb Yehoshua Tzvi Weiser, z”l

https://www.shomreihadas.com/http-webcast-funeralvue-com-events-viewer-58827-hash4bf8b45961087887/