Memory Lane: Rabbi Chaim Yitzchok Pupko

At the corner of East Fourth Street and Avenue I, on the outskirts of Boro Park, stands a tiny shul called Damesek Eliezer. This was Rabbi Chaim Yitzchok Pupko’s tribute to his father, Rav Eliezer Pupko—a legendary rov in Philadelphia. A young Rabbi at the time, he is seen accompanying his illustrious father at the march on Washington in the fall of 1943.  

Chaim Yitzchok Pupko was born in the year 1907. As a young talmid, he went to learn under Rav Elchanan in Ohel Torah-Baranovitch, and from there he journeyed to learn by the Chofetz Chaim in Radin—where he was drawn close, likely on account of the family connection. 

There he learned under the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Moshe Landynski and Rav Naftali Tropp, zt”l, receiving semicha from the former in 1932. In 1934, he arrived in America, after his father made it to America in 1931.A newspaper article from the time of Rav Leizer’s arrival in America speaks of his terrible persecution in Czarist Russia, which was the reason for his flight. 

“Rabbi arrested four times by Societ has St. Louis Pastorate,” wrote the St. Louis Globe. Leizer Pupko speaks no English, refuses to talk of Russia. Fresh from Russia, Rabbi Leizer Pupko, who stood trial four times before Bolshevist military tribunals, accused of counter-revolutionary activities, arrived in St. Louis to assume the pastorate of Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodol.” 

Marriage to Royalty 

In 1938 he married Shifra Freida Schneerson, the daughter of Rebbe Chaim Moshe Yehoshua Schneerson of Tamashpol-Koidenov—who was a scion of the dynasties of Lubavitch and Chernobyl. 

A direct descendant, ben achar ben, from the Ba’al Hatanya, the Rebbe’s grandmother—Rebbetzin Sara Freida Schneerson— was the daughter of Rebbe Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkassy, a grandson of the Chernobyler Maggid. Thus the Rebbe was a fusion of the two illustrious dynasties of Lubavitch and Chernobyl, and identified deeply with each of these courts on American soil, at a time when chassidishe Rebbe’s were an anomaly in Brownsville of yore. 

Also in 1938, he was hired as the Rav of Zichru Toras Moshe—a magnificent shul in East New York (founded 1919). Eventually that neighborhood deteriorated, and Rabbi Pupko purchased the home on Avenue I, where he opened shul, naming it Damesek Eliezer in tribute to his father. 

A Brilliant Rabbinic Career

Throughout his life he was known as one who abhorred any sort of conflict; and so he especially appreciated that the home was located in an area where there were no other shuls, so he would not be taking any congregants away from other shuls. The home also offered a walk-in level which was optimal for a shul. And so, in 1965, the shul opened its doors—and it continues to this day, led by a son of the Rav. 

A Radiner talmid of twelve years, possessed with a brilliant mind, and a great lamdan, Rav Chaim Yitzchok was a turned-to posek, and sat on a number of dinei Torah with Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l. 

In addition to the many issues he was involved with, he was part of a Rabbinic committee for preserving Eretz Yisroel in Jewish hands, not giving away any land to Arabs—a cause that he was very passionate about. 

Rav Pupko continued to run the shul until his strength would no longer allow him, and then his son, Rabbi Mordechai Dov, would arrange minyanim for him upstairs, while regular minyanim continued downstairs. On 5 Iyar 5760/2000 Rav Chaim Yitzchok Pupko, zt”l, left this world leaving behind a legacy of decades of Rabbanus on America shores, shaped and molded by Radin of yore.