Destroyed Grave Was Identified

By COLlive reporter

Decades after it was destroyed, the gravesite of Rebbe Mordechai Dov Twerski of Hornsteipl (1839–1903) has been restored in the village of Hornostaypil in the Kiev region in Ukraine.

The grave of the author of “Emek Shaalo” and a grandson of the Mitteler Rebbe of Lubavitch, Rabbi Dovber Schneuri, survived the Second World War, but not Communism.

According to R’ Yisroel Meir Gabbai, head of Agudas Ohalei Tzadikim who restored the grave, the Communist regime have razed the entire Jewish cemetery in Hornostaypil.

A few months ago, a Jewish family in Kiev contacted Gabbai informing him that their parents lived in Hornostaypil and remember the exact location of Rebbe Mordchai Dov’s resting place.

The couple initially refused to return to their hometown our of fear from local Anti-Semitism, but were persuaded to visit with Gabbai and his staff.

Rebbe Mordechai Dov’s mother was Devorah Leah, daughter of the second Lubavitcher Rebbe. He married Reytse, daughter of the Rebbe Chaim Halberstam of Sanz, also known as the Divrei Chaim.

His first cousin, Rebbetzin Sterna Sarah, daughter of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok of Ovruch, married Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe known as the Rebbe Rashab.