By COLlive reporter
Reb Yisroel Balkin, a longtime resident of the Los Angeles Chabad community, passed away on Wednesday, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan 5777.
He was 80.
The Levaya passed by Yeshivas Or Elchanan Chabad Los Angeles earlier today, and will continue in Eretz Yisroel where he’ll be laid to rest on Har Hazeisim on Friday at 14:00.
Balkin was born in Leningrad, Russia, in 1936 to his parents Reb Eliyahu and Chaya Genesya Balkin. His father was instructed by the Frierdiker Rebbe to learn in the Chassidic village of Nevel.
There, the known chossid Reb Peretz Mochkin arranged his Shidduch with Reb Peretz’s cousin Genesya Zagviya. Following his marriage, Balkin moved to Leningrad (today S. Petersburg).
A devoted Chossid of the Previous Rebbe, Balkin was loved by all and was called an ‘Oved’ by those who knew him. He oftentimes would hold farbrengens in his home and developed a close friendship with Reb Chonye Morozov and his family.
Balkin risked his life many times while helping his fellow Chassidim escape Russia and was involved in the underground Chassidim network to keep Yiddishkeit alive in Communist Russia.
As a young child, Reb Yisroel Balkin watched his father being taken away by the KGB secret police, and he was killed shortly thereafter Al Kiddush Hashem together with a number of other Chassidim.
The family survived the Holocaust by fleeing to Siberia, and later immigrating to Paris where Yisroel Balkin studied at Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim in the town of Brunoy on the Frierdiker Rebbe’s instructions.
In 1949, he moved to New York where he merited to attend many of the Rebbe’s Farbrengens even before the Rebbe took the Nesius. His mother, known as Mrs. Balkin, was well-known as a caring cook in Oholei Torah.
Reb Yisroel Balkin moved to California in the 1970’s, where he would enjoy visiting the Lubavitch Yeshiva there on a regular basis. He would farbreng and learn with the bochurim until his passing this week.
Reb Yisroel had two older brothers and two sisters: Mendel, who lived in Russia all his life with his children and grandchildren, Abba who lived in Brooklyn. His sister Michle who passed away as a infant. And his sister, Lea Edelman, lived in Paris. She was mother to the large Edelman family from France.
Reb Yisroel Balkin is survived by nephews and nieces around the world, and their children and grandchildren, many of whom are Shluchim of the Rebbe.
Baruch Dayan Haemes.
Pls ask close surviving family members of Reb Yisroel Balkin to email me. My grandfather Julius Balkin was from Lithuania or Latvia. – Steven Shmul Balkin in Chicago, Email: [email protected]
Sorry would like to know who you are because his nephew Eli never got this becher, whom to did you give it ?
Correct.
Yes, 1 cheshvon is the day the family observes R Eliyahus yortzeit
True
heard the Friedike Rebbe answered the family to observe R’ Eliyahu’s yortsait on first of Cheshvon, same day as R’ Yisroel passing …
My father (Reb Moshe Marozov) a”h told me about Reb Eliyahu Balking that as a bochur he asked at the Baal Shem Tov’s Kever to find his way to the Tzadik Hador and ended up in Chabad. When I was a little boy I remember Reb Yisroel a”h in 770 on Shabbosim he would often talk with me he had a sense of humor and was very sharp. Mendel Marozov
Yisroel A’H was an Eidele Yid. Used to come by my house and bring all the children tennis balls to play with.
Always had a smile. His Neshoma should have an Aliya.
Boruch Dayan Hoemes R’ Yisroel a personal old Friend for over 50 years , I must say he passed away like a real Chossid , In the last years at least 10 years , he started learning , but really learning , he got a Mishnayot , and Ein Yaakov with Yiddish translation , and learned in them every day in Teffilin after Davening , used to learn hours , he also learned Kitzur Sulchon Oruch , and some Kabbalah Seforim , He had a old set of Chumoshim with the 45 Pirushim and spend lot of time on Parshas… Read more »
Having to know him for more then thirty five years here in L.A. going back to high school days in Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad, he was a Big Talmid Chochom, always very nice to every one, very eidel and erlich, was saying lot’s of Chidushei Torah to many bochrim, When ever I came to visit him he would always say a Dvar Torah usually on the Parshah or on the Sidur and lot’s of stories about the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Rebbe and Chabad Chasidim in Russia and France, it was very geshmack to farbraing with such a Chosid, R’ Yisroel… Read more »
When I was a shliach in the yeshivah in LA I would often shmooze with Reb Yisroel about the Chasidim in Brunoy. He was a gishmaker Yid. Yehi Zichroi Boruch.
Reb Yisroel had a great Koch in learning Chumash with the Meforshim, and teaching it over the phone in length in Yiddish to his great nephews, of which he had over 100 as his sister had 13 children.The communists scarred him for life, but Parshas HaShovua kept him going, along with his friendship with the local Shliach Rabbi Brod who has put in many hours on a regular basis with Yisroel Balkin, and even helping him in emergencies (dropping all instantly) for many decades and without compensation. It is heartwarming that Reb Yisroel Balkin’s will is being done by burying… Read more »
What year was it ? Thank you for sharing, i remember Mrs Munitz Puter mit breit ,puter mit breit
Boruch Dayan Emes. How sad, He was a good and erlicher Mench
Bd”h
I Remember his mother as a warm and grateful cook to the children in our school .
whenever a child did not like the lunch she would personally come over to us and ask us why we are not eating then she would go back to the kitchen and make for us a lunch that we would loved.
What a special lady.
Bd”h
I knew Yisrael very Well.