Rabbi Binyomin Dovid Lipskind zt”l, the longtime legendary administrator of Yeshivas Kol Torah in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Yerushalayim, passed away overnight following a serious illness and a period of suffering. He was 74.
For decades, Rabbi Lipskind played an instrumental role in the growth and development of Kol Torah, having been personally asked by Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l to assume responsibility for the yeshiva’s administration and help establish and expand its institutions.
Rabbi Lipskind was born in Buffalo, New York, and was involved in Jewish activities from an early age. Following the Six Day War, while still a young man, he organized rallies of support and fundraising efforts aimed at assisting the development of Yerushalayim and providing aid to those in need.
In the United States, he completed his studies in sociology with distinction and subsequently began working professionally as a sociologist. He later moved to Eretz Yisroel on his own, enlisted in the IDF and served as an officer in the Israeli Air Force.
After settling in Eretz Yisroel, Rabbi Lipskind was asked to establish and direct the department serving senior citizens for the Bnei Brak municipality.
Eight years later, his rebbi, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, asked him to leave Bnei Brak and relocate to Yerushalayim to help strengthen and develop Yeshivas Kol Torah in Bayit Vegan and assist the yeshiva’s roshei yeshiva.
For approximately 25 years, Rabbi Lipskind served as the yeshiva’s renowned administrator. During that period, he oversaw extensive development, expansion and consolidation of Kol Torah and its affiliated institutions. Among his major accomplishments was the development and construction of the yeshiva campus in Bayit Vegan.
Alongside his highly visible responsibilities at the yeshiva, Rabbi Lipskind quietly devoted himself to helping people in need. Many of those he assisted were talmidim of the yeshiva, while he also dedicated significant efforts to helping at-risk youth.
Rabbi Lipskind was a man of exceptional honesty and integrity who sought no recognition for his accomplishments and took little personal credit for the institutions and initiatives he helped build.
Even during his later years, he continued contributing his personal resources and abilities to tzedakah and chesed organizations throughout Yerushalayim. Among his communal accomplishments was the establishment of a shul in the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood.
In recognition of his extensive efforts to strengthen the Torah world in Yerushalayim, as well as his decades of work on behalf of needy families and struggling young people, Rabbi Lipskind was awarded the prestigious Yakir Yerushalayim honor.
Friends and acquaintances recalled that it was virtually impossible to hear a critical word from him. They said he avoided rebuke and negativity, instead greeting people with warmth, encouragement, generosity of spirit and an instinctive ability to see the good in others.
Rabbi Lipskind had an especially deep aversion to machlokes and was pained whenever he witnessed discord between people.
“His entire life he fled from disputes and was always pained by quarrels between people. His entire being was one of prayer and yearning that there should be peace between one person and another, both within our own community and between our community and all the other communities and segments of the nation. He could not bear division,” an acquaintance related.
During the final weeks of his life, despite his greatly diminished strength, Rabbi Lipskind displayed extraordinary determination as he merited completing the writing of a Sefer Torah.
Rabbi Lipskind leaves behind a distinguished family who continue along the path he established throughout his lifetime.
Yehi zichro baruch.
{Matzav.com}
