By COLlive reporter
The family of the Sadigura Rebbe R’ Yisroel Moshe Friedman OBM has been sitting Shiva at their large shul in Bnei Brak with a limited crowd due to the pandemic.
Among those visiting was Rabbi Yochanan Gurary, Chief Rabbi of Holon and a member of Beis Din Rabbonei Chabad in Israel who represented his collegues on the final day of Shiva.
Sadigura and Chabad has kept close friendships, with the previous Sadigura Rebbe regularly participating in the Rebbe’s farbrengens at 770 Eastern Parkway.
The Sadigura Rebbe who just passed away was raised in Crown Heights.
Speaking to his children, Rabbi Gurary said: “Your grandfather, the Abir Yaakov, asked me to learn Gemara with your father zt”l. We would sit for many hours and I taught him Gemeara. I also walked your great-grandfather to the Mikvah. He would ask me to repeat a vort from the Rebbe.”
Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar sent a letter of condolences to the Rebbetzin and 6 children of the Sadigura Rebbe.
“I had the merit of being in contact with your father several times,” he wrote in the letter that was hand-delivered.
His connection to the Jews of Russia and his care and loving concern for their material and spiritual needs were wonderous.
Rabbi Lazar said that the Sadigura Rebbe would express his amazement from the work of Shluchim around the world and how survival of Russian Jews thanks to the Rebbe.
In particular, the Sadigura Rebbe was familiar with the Jewish community of Chernovtzy in Ukraine, led by Shliach Rabbi Menachem Glitzenshtein.
Along with reviving the local community, Rabbi Glitzenshtein has tended to the gravesite of the Ruzhiner Rebbe R’ Yisroel Friedman tz”l, of whom the Sadigura Rebbe was a descendant.
They Both Lived On Crown Street Probably 5 Houses away From Each Other;
That would be their great-great-grandfather.
Bistritzky bought the house on 400 crown street from the Sadigur Rebbe when they moved to Israel. The Rebbitzin had a shoe store together with Rebbitzin Lubling. In the Bistritzky home there was a spot in the living room used for klie kodesh, it used to be the Aaron Kodesh in the Sadigur Bais Madrash.