An event marking the eleventh yartzeit of Mrs. Gita Gansburg will take place this Wednesday evening, Vov Kislev/November 26. The gathering will be held at Mrs. Gansburg’s home for 38 years, the Machon L’Yahadus dormitory at 1367 President Street and on Zoom.
During one of the Rebbe’s visits to the dormitory on the first night of Pesach, the Rebbe told Mrs. Gansburg, “Thank you for raising my daughters.”
Mrs. Gansburg devoted nearly four decades of her life to “raising the Rebbe’s daughters.” In this capacity she worked together with her husband, famed chasid Rabbi Yitzchok (“Itchke”) Gansburg. Mrs. Gansburg is the daughter of the renown chasid Reb Refoel Nachman Kahn.
The event, “Five Minutes with Mrs. Gansburg,” will feature people who knew Mrs. Gansburg in different capacities and at different times of her life. They will each share a teaching, memory or life-lesson for five minutes.
Rabbi Shloma Majeski, principal of Machon L’Yahadus, will open the program. Tonya Kogan, Sharona Sternbach and Sprintza Blumenthal – all alumni of the dorm will be sharing. Chana Nemni, a teacher at Machon L’Yahadus who was Mrs. Gansburg’s assistant for one year and then was the dorm mother together with her husband for five years after Mrs. Gansburg’s passing will speak. Rabbi Mendy Chanin, a grandson of Mrs. Gansburg will also share. The evening will be chaired by Yehudis Cohen, assistant principal of Machon L’Yahadus who worked closely with Mrs. Gansburg and who was also a dorm student under Mrs. Gansburg.
Shared one alumna who now has her own Chassidishe home, “I appreciated that Mrs. Gansburg understood that I was coming from nothing in Yiddishkeit and that the adjustment was hard for me! She didn’t chase after me saying ‘No, you must do this and this.’ ”
Another alum, now living in Chicago with her family, reminisces, “I really wish I had internalized more of the chinuch that was given by Mrs. Gansburg. I cherish all the moments spent with and her teachings.”
“Our dorm is a nurturing place for our students,” explains Rabbi Majeski, “surely due in part to the continuation of Mrs Gansburg’s legacy of making the dorm a ‘home away from home’ for the students.”
This year’s Machon L’Yahadus students hail from all over the United States as well as from Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, England, Australia, Denmark and Argentina.
The event will be on Zoom ID #832 826 3444 password Learning or FB Live @womensyeshiva
To donate in memory of Mrs Gansburg visit womensyeshiva.org/donate/ or call 347-300-7729
Machon L’Yahadus is a division of NCFJE.
I will never forget Mrs Gansburg!!!
F. Dery