Rebbetzin Chaya Nechama Halberstam a”h, the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbetzin

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of Rebbetzin Chaya Nechama Halberstam a”h, the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbetzin. She was 96.

The rebbetzin was the wife of Rav Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam zt”l, the founding rebbe of the Sanz-Klausenburg kehillah.

The rebbe lost his first wife and eleven children during the Holocaust. (One child passed away following the war in the DP camps.) On Erev Shabbos, 6 Elul, August 22, 1947, he rebbe married Rebbetzin Chaya Nechama, née Ungar, the orphaned daughter of the Nitra Rov, Rav Shmuel Dovid Ungar zt”l. The shidduch was made by Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandl, the Nitra Rov’s son-in-law.

The tenaim was held at Rav Weissmandl’s Nitra Yeshiva in Somerville, NJ, while the chupah and dancing were held at Yeshivas She’aris Hapleitah, the rebbe‘s yeshiva in Somerville.

At the time of their marriage, the rebbe was 46 and the rebbetzin was 29.

The rebbetzin had five daughters and two sons. Her sons, Rav Tzvi Elimelech Halberstam and Rav Shmuel Dovid Halberstam, succeeded their father, respectively, as Sanzer Rebbe of Netanya and Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of New York.

The rebbe first moved to the United States after the war, but throughout his travails during the Holocaust, he always intended to settle in Eretz Yisroel. Toward that end, he established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in Netanya in 1958. The rebbe and rebbetzin moved permanently to Eretz Yisroel in 1960, settling in Netanya and directing both the community there and in Williamsburg. The rebbe also founded botei medrash and schools in other cities in Eretz Yisroel, and established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood of Yerushalayim as well. In 1968 he founded another Sanz community in Union City, New Jersey, and afterwards divided his time between that community and his residence in Netanya. The rebbe is also known for having established Laniado Hospital, a not-for-profit state-of-the-art hospital in Netanya run according to halacha.

The rebbe recorded his Torah novellae in Shefa Chaim and Shailos Uteshuvos Divrei Yatziv.

The rebbe was niftar in 1994.

The rebbetzin lived in recent years in Union City, New Jersey and had been battling illness.

She is survived by her children, Rav Tzvi Elimelech Halberstam, Sanzer Rebbe of Netanya; Rav Shmuel Dovid Halberstam, Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Boro Park; Rebbetzin Miriam Leah Goldman, wife of Rav Shlomo Goldman, the Zhviller Rebbe zt”l of Union City; Rebbetzin Weiss, wife of Rav D. Weiss of Yerushalayim; Rebbetzin Shapiro, wife of Rav A. D. Shapiro of Bnei Brak; Rebbetzin Prizant, wife of Rav Shaul Yehuda Prizant, dayan of the Sanz-Klausenberger community in Union City; Rebbetzin Motzen, wife of Rav A P. Motzen, rov of Kiryas HaBaal Shem Tov in Petach Tikvah.

Yehi zichrah boruch.

VIDEO: The Sanzer Rebbe greeting his mother, the rebbetzin a”h:

{Matzav.com Newscenter}