By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Shmuel Chefer, who served as Chairman of Beit Rivkah College in Kfar Chabad and Vice Chairman of Agudas Chassidei Chabad in Israel, passed away on Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach, 17 Nissan 5780.
He was 89 and suffered from cardiac arrest.
He was born in Budapest was confined to the local ghetto with his family when the Nazis invaded Hungary during the Second World War. The ghetto was liberated by the Soviet Red Army a year later and he was one of its survivors.
For the next 2 years, he wandered in Germany and France. When he tried to enter the land of Israel on an immigrant ship, British Mandate Authorities banished the passengers to Cyprus for a half a year.
On his second attempt, he was successful in entering the land. A half a year before the founding of the State of Israel, he volunteered to serve in the Palmach, an elite fighting force of the Jewish underground army Haganah.
During the Altalena Affair, which confronted the newly created Israel Defense Forces against the Irgun, one of the Jewish paramilitary groups, he was one of the fighters who refused to battle and hurt fellow Jews.
At the age of 24, he was sent by the Jewish Agency for Israel to Morrocco to serve in educational and communal capacities, primarily teaching the Hebrew language to local children. It was there that he met with the Shliach Rabbi Shlomo Matusof and began learning together Tanya and the Tzemach Tzedek’s Derech Mitzvosecha.
Upon his return to Israel, he continued as a teacher in several institutions, among them at Chabad’s Oholei Yosef Yitzchok school in Jaffa and the Chabad school in Kfar Saba.
In 1958, he married Rivka Rosenblum, daughter of Rabbi Chaim Yosef Rosenblum of the Chabad chassidim in Tel Aviv. A year later he joined the Beit Rivka College in Kfar Chabad.
When the girls’ school was facing closure due to financial debt, the Rebbe instructed that Rabbi Chefer be appointed its director. During a Yechidus, the Rebbe said the institution should not be near the boys’ schools and suggested founding Kfar Chabad Beit.
Kfar Chabad Beit, which become the largest educational campus of Chabad in Israel, received key funding from the American government for its founding. It has educated thousands of girls from all ages and backgrounds and is most notably known for its teachers’ training college, awarding B.A. and M.A. degrees. It has branches in Jerusalem and Tzfas.
Rabbi Chefer’s influence extended beyond the field of education. As a leader in Agudas Chassidei Chabad in Israel and the Vaad Lemaan Shleimus Ha’am, he advocated for institutions and causes that were near and dear to the Rebbe.
In his visible role, he emceed and addressed notable Chabad events such as the Bar Mitzvah celebration for the children of fallen Israeli soldiers, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Vocational School in Kfar Chabad, farbrengens and other public events.
Most notably, he was a member of the Irgun Gag, the umbrella group of all Chabad institutions and communities in Israel, alongside Rabbis Ephraim Wolf, Shlomo Maidanchik and Leibel Kaplan.
Stories of instructions he has received from the Rebbe over the years were published on many occasions, including in JEM’s Here’s My Story and the Motzoei Shabbos Story by Hasidic Archives.
He is survived by his wife Mrs. Rivka Chefer, their children Rabbi Moshe Chefer – Kfar Chabad; Rabbi Menachem Mendel Chefer – Kfar Chabad; Mrs. Devorah Shikovsky and Mrs. Nava Slonim – Modi’in; grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Baruch Dayan Ha’emes.
Baruch Dayan Emes
In 1978-1979 a group of American girls from Bais Rivkah Crown Heights went to BR Seminary in Kfar Chabad Bet. We remember Rabbi Chefer, who was our principal. We respected him for his devotion and excellence in the chinuch of the Seminaristiot, as we were called.
May he be a meiltiz yosher for his family and students, and plead for Moshiach to come now to finally vanquish the galus pain and to unite us here with our Rebbe.
May his family be comforted.
Thank you, Rabbi Chefer
I remember Rabbi Chefer as principal of Bais Rivkah Seminary from 84-87 (when I was there), he established a high caliber institution with a recognized degree under the Ministry of Education in Israel. The faculty he hired in the institution was of amazing standard and they did not only include Lubavitchers but also educators across Israel who had the Torah knowledge and secular education to provide a high level of education to the students. I appreciated his openness to everyone. One of the aspects not mentioned in the article was how he led the campaign of Mi Hu Yehudi when… Read more »
I remember back in 1984 when Harav Chefer brought in former Secretary of State Alexander Haig to the sem to meet all the American and Canadian girls
BDHE
So sad to hear about the petira of my menahel Harav Chefer Z”L who headed the most advanced teacher training sem in Israel. As one of the few Montrealers who spent all 3 years in the program (most girls from the US/Canada stayed for only one or two years) I am grateful that Harav Chefer encouraged me to stay for all 3 years for the highest degree available back then. My condolences to the entire family and to his daughter in law , Gili (Naftalin) Chefer who a good friend and sem classmate during those years.