Living Legacy: Rebbe Yitzchok of Sadigura-Rimanov, zt”l
In 1924, there arrived in
America a scion of the Ruziner dynasty, Rav Yitzchok Friedman of
Sadiger-Riminow. He was the son of Rav Yisroel, the son of Rav Avrohom Yaakov
of Sadiger, who was the son the Rebbe Yisroel of Ruzin.
It was following WWI, and
he came in search of funds to support his young family. In his time in America,
he rarely left his apartment on the Lower East Side, except to go to the mikvah.
Tragedy struck on the eve of his return back to Europe, when he fell ill, and
was niftar a short time later.
His yorhtzeit
falls on 11 Kislev.
The Rebbe was born in
Sadigura in 1886, to his father Rav Yisroel and his mother Bas Sheva, both
grandchildren of the Heiliger Ruziner. He grew up in the holy court of
Sadigura, surrounded by his holy father, uncles, and his grandfather, Rebbe
Yisroel of Sadigura. In 1904, he married
He married the daughter
of Rebbe Osher Yeshaya Horowitz, a scion of the court of Riminov. It is said that
the wedding drew an astounding 20,000 people. He remained living in Sadigura,
but after the passing of his grandfather, the townspeople of Riminov asked him
to come and lead them, to which he acquiesced.
During WWI, he made his
way to Vienna, like so many of the Ruziner dynasty. Despite pleas from
chassidim in America starting in 1922, following the calamities of WWI—and
their assurances that he will lack for nothing— he insisted on remaining in
Europe. He finally agreed to come in 1924. A massive kabbolas ponim was held
for him in the Clinton Street Shul, on the Lower East Side, in the presence of
many rabbonim.
He remained in his
apartment on Attorney Street, opposite the Sadigerer Kloiz. He rarely went out,
and some of his visits were to his cousins, fellow Admorim of the Ruziner
dynasty. The dire state of Yiddishkeit in America affected him to the core, and
he fell ill. His condition deteriorated, and he was niftar on Friday night.
His petirah shocked the
community, and tens of thousands packed the streets of New York City for the
Levaya.
Upon his petirah, he was
buried in the newly acquired Sadigerer Chelkah at Mt. Zion Cemetery. In the
newspaper reports from that day, it is noted about the thousands of heartbroken
men and women who crowded the cemetery, and how “the elder chossid and Talmid
chochom, Rav Avigdor Regenbogen was honored to say the ‘Ma’avar Yabok’ and
to eulogize the niftar.” In an index of those who were involved in
raising funds for the Rebbe’s widow and orphans, Rav Avigdor is noted as “a landsman
from Galicia, here widely known as a marbitz Torah and talmid
chochom… primary advocate for the Chortkiver Rebbe shlit”a, and a
friend to all Ruziner descendants.”
The Nazis murdered the
Rebbetzin in the town of Rimanov in Elul 1941, but the Rebbe’s children were
able to relocate to the United States after World War II.
The ohel was erected two years
later, with the attendance of two famed men associated with the house of Ruzin,
namely Chortkov: Rav Meir Shapiro and Chazzan Yossele Rosenblatt.
The resting place of the Rebbe in the Sadigerer Chelkah has remained a place for tefillos,
