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Living Legacy: Rebbe Issumer Rosenbaum, the “Alter Rebbe” of Nadvorna, zt”l

Living Legacy: Rebbe Issumer Rosenbaum, the “Alter Rebbe” of Nadvorna, zt”l

Today, 22 Sivan, marks the 38th yohrtzeit of the Nadvorna Rebbe—who transplanted the fire of this holy court, and the great chassidic masters who influenced it—from Europe into America and Eretz Yisroel. Through his illustrious descendants—a number of whom were in Boro Park—that fire continues to illuminate and inspire. 

The Rebbe born born in the summer of 1873 to his father, Rav Meir’l of Kretchnif, a son of the legendary Rav Mordche’le of Nadvorna, who was a 4th generation ben-achar-been of the Rav Meir’l Premishlaner. 

After his marriage to Rebbetzin Malka, the daughter of the Kolbosover Rebbe, Rav Usher Yeshaya Rubin, he settled in Czernovitz—where he began to lead as a Rebbe, even during the lifetime of his father. 

Czernowitz was a spiritually-barren town, and Rav Issumer was very careful not to expose his children to the influences of the streets, keeping them indoors most of the time. A maskil once challenged him; “Why do you keep your doors locked before your children?” He answered: “In the tefillos of Motzei Shabbos we ask Hashem to open doors to Torah, yiras Shomayim, Parnasah… a total of 63 doors. I keep one door locked, so that they should merit the other sixty three.” Indeed, his children grew up to be exceptional talmidei chachomim and ovdei Hashem.” 

Following the harrowing events of the Holocaust—which his family miraculously survived intact—he arrived in America and settled in Washington Heights, where he had a shtiebel, which spread the warmth of chassidus in New York of those postwar days. 

While his son, Rav Chaim Mordechai Rosenbaum of Nadvorna went directly to Eretz Yisroel (Yaffo and later Bnei Brak) where Nadvorna is led today by his grandson, his sons Rav Yitzchok Eizik of Zutchka, and Rav Yisachar Ber of Stroznitz (whose son was the Moshalu Rebbe, who transplanted from the Bronx to Boro Park many years ago), led their courts in Boro Park. 

After twenty years, Rav Issumer made his way to Tel Aviv, and established a shtiebel there. Immediately upon his arrival, his son toned down his own leadership—out of respect for his father—and the two would lead tischen together for all his remaining years. Even during his years in America, Rav Chaim Mordechai would come every single year to visit his parents. 

The Rebbe’s daughter was married to Rebbe Avrohom Abba Leifer of Pittsburgh, through whom another branch of Nadvorna Rebbes has emerged, in addition to the Pittsburgher chassidus. The Nadvorna Leifer’s have likewise been in Boro Park for decades—where they, as well as the thousands of descendants and chassidim of the holy Nadvorna court—comprise Rav Issumer’l’s living legacy. 


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