The Kaliver Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel Taub zt”l

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of the Kaliver Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel Taub zt”l. He was 96.

The Rebbe was the seventh in a direct paternal line to the founder of the Kaliver dynasty, Rav Yitzchok Isaac of Kaliv, a disciple of Rav Elimelech of Lizensk.

Seven years ago, at age 89, the rebbe married Mrs. Shaindel Malnick, then 55, from Kiryat Herzog in Bnei Brak.

The Rebbe was a son of the Rozler Rov. His first wife, Rebbetzin Chana Sara Shifra, passed away about eight years ago at the age of 94. She was a daughter of Rav Pinchas Shapiro of Kechnia and was a descendant of Rav Meir Premishlaner.

The Rebbe was born in Transylvania in 1923. In 1944, the Rebbe was put on a transport to Auschwitz by the Nazis and he arrived there three days before Shavuos. While in Auschwitz, he was experimented upon by Joseph Mengele ym”sh, and, consequently, is unable to have children or grow facial hair. He was transferred from there to the Warsaw Ghetto and the Breslau concentration camp, and later to Bergen-Belsen. Six months after the war ended, he discovered that his wife had survived, and they were reunited in Sweden. In 1947, they migrated to the United States, where he began his work in memorializing the Holocaust in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Rebbe moved to Eretz Yisroel in 1962 and the Rebbe created Kiryas Kaliv in Rishon LeZion. Several years later, the Rebbe moved his chassidus to Bnei Brak. In 2004, the Rebbe’s court moved to Yerushalayim.

During the last 60 years, since World War II, the Rebbe traveled to millions of Jews with his story and the saying of Shema Yisrael. He was active in kiruv rechokim and delivered regular shiurim and shmuessen for groups of professionals, including doctors and police officers. In addition, he directed a network of kollelim, an encyclopedia project, and several other undertakings of chassidus Kaliv.

The Rebbe authored and published Kol Menachem, a 13-volume work on the Torah and Yomim Tovim, along with several other works.

The levayah will be held at 4 p.m. at the Kaliver Bais Medrash on Rechov Chana in Yerushalayim, passing by the Belzer Bais Medrash en route to Har Hamenuchos, where kevurah will be held.

Yehi zichro boruch.

The following is a collection of videos of the Rebbe zt”l:

{Matzav.com Israel}