Rabbi Shimon Moshe Diskin, 87, OBM

Rabbi Shimon Moshe Diskin, who escaped Communist Russia, learned in the Ponevezh Yeshiva and served as the Rov of the Chabad Shul on Rashi Street in Bnei Brak, passed away on Sunday. He is survived by a family that serves as Shluchim around Israel, Germany and the USA. Full Story

May 7, 2023 – 16 Iyyar 5783

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Shimon Moshe Diskin, from the elder Chabad Chassidim and rabbonim in Israel, passed away on Sunday, 16 Iyar 5783.

He was 87.

Rabbi Diskin was born in Poland on 12 Shvat 5696 to his parents, Rabbi Aharon Yaakov and Sheina Malka Diskin. He was named after his paternal grandfather, who was the Rov of Lyakhavichy (Lachowicze), a city in Belarus.

His father, who was from a Litvish family, served as a Rov in Russia and was arrested and exiled to Kazakhstan by the Communist regime for teaching Torah. While in exile, he merited to be in close touch with Harav Levi Yitzchok Schneerson OBM, the father of the Rebbe, and he became a Chabad Chossid.

At the conclusion of the Second World War, the Diskin family was able to leave Russia as part of the “great escape” of many Jewish Chassidim families. The family spent a few years in France until they immigrated to the Holy Land of Israel.

Rabbi Diskin studied at the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. He later married Chana Hinda Teitelbaum, the daughter of R’ Shlomo and Ruchama Bluma Teitelbaum, who were murdered by the Nazis when she was a child. Chana Hinda was raised by her aunt in Bnei Brak, Israel.

Rabbi Diskin, as a chossid and talmid chacham, served on the educational boards of Yeshiva Achei Tmimim in Rishon L’tziyon, the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch in Lod and Kfar Chabad, and the Chabad Talmud Torah in Bnei Brak.

In those roles, he merited to receive guidance from the Rebbe, specifically a lengthy Yechidus about education in 5736.

He served for many years as the Rov of the Chabad Shul on Rashi Street in Bnei Brak, even while local Chassidim were the target of ridicule and hate from fellow residents.

He merited to have his children and grandchildren serving as Shluchim of the Rebbe around Israel, Germany and the United States.

He is survived by his wife Mrs. Chana Hinda Diskin – Bnei Brak; Rabbi Chaim Shlomo Diskin – Kryat Ata, Israel; Rabbi Yisroel Meir Diskin – Munich, Germany; Mrs. Rivkah Greenberg – Shoham, Israel; Blima Kopilovitz – Bnei Brak, Israel; Mrs. Tzipora Wilhelm – Naharia, Israel; Mrs. Yehudit Minzberg – Rechovot, Israel; grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The levaya was held on Sunday.

Baruch Dayan Haemes.