The Kashau Rov zt”l

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of the Kashau Rov, Rav Eliezer Chaim Blum zt”l, who was niftar on Friday night.

The Rov was a son of previous Kashau Rov, Rav Refoel Blum, and led the Kashau kehillah.

There are Kashau mosdos are presently located in Williamsburg, Monsey, and Bedford Hills, New York.

The Rov’s father, Rav Refoel, was niftar in 2005. He was a talmid of R’ Shaul Brach zt”l, rav, rosh av beis din, and rosh yeshiva of Kashau. Rav Refoel learned in Rav Brach’s yeshiva for twenty-five zemanim. Before World War II, Rav Refoel led a yeshiva in Mihalowitz. He was liberated from the Nazis on January 18, 1945 to the city of Arad in Romania. During the summer of 1945, Rav Refoel returned to Kashau and was influential in establishing the halachic status of survivors of the war, freeing them to remarry after determining that their spouses had been killed. In 1948, Rav Refoel arrived in Brooklyn, New York and began the work of transferring his yeshiva from Kashau. Shortly afterwards, Rav Refoel was appointed rosh yeshiva of the Tzelemer Yeshiva Arugas Habosem. At that time, Rav Refoel founded Kehillas Kashau in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Eventually, Rav Refoel started yeshivos and a secluded village for Kashau chassidim in the forests of Westchester County, outside Bedford Hills. The village is known as Kiryas Kashau today.

The Kashau Rov, Rav Eliezer Chaim, was Rav Refoel’s oldest son and carried on his legacy, leading his mosdos and serving as a guide and manhig to many. The Rov was an influential advocate of the practice of metzitza b’peh and its legal status in New York City.

The levayah will take place tonight, Motzoei Shabbos, at 8:45 p.m. at the Kashua Bais Medrash, located at 207 Ross Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Yehi zichro boruch.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}