Ephraim Fishel Hershkowitz ( he, אפרים פישל הערשקאוויטש) (2 October 1922 – 27 May 2017), the Haleiner Rav, was an American Hasidic rabbi, the senior Klausenburger '' dayan'' in

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. As of the 2020 United ...

, New York. He was a respected elder in the American

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

community.

Early life

Ephraim Fishel was born on

Yom Kippur Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day' ...

1922 (10

Tishrei Tishrei () or Tishri (; he, ''tīšrē'' or ''tīšrī''; from Akkadian ''tašrītu'' "beginning", from ''šurrû'' "to begin") is the first month of the civil year (which starts on 1 Tishrei) and the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year ...

5683) in the city of

Mukačevo Mukachevo ( uk, Мукачево, ; hu, Munkács; see name section) is a city in the valley of the Latorica river in Zakarpattia Oblast (province), in Western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Mukachevo Raion (district), the city ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

(present-day

Zakarpattia Oblast The Zakarpattia Oblast ( uk, Закарпатська область, Zakarpatska oblast) is an administrative oblast located in western Ukraine, mostly coterminous with the historical region of Carpathian Ruthenia. Its administrative centre is ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

). His father, Rabbi Shlomo Hershkowitz, and his grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Hershkowitz (author of ''Birkas Avraham al HaTorah'') were loyal Spinka

Hasidim Ḥasīd ( he, חסיד, "pious", "saintly", "godly man"; plural "Hasidim") is a Jewish honorific, frequently used as a term of exceptional respect in the Talmudic and early medieval periods. It denotes a person who is scrupulous in his observ ...

. When he was older, Ephraim Fishel would accompany them to visit the Spinka Rebbe, Grand Rabbi Isaac Weiss (1875–1944) on every

Yom Tov Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...

. As a boy, Ephraim Fishel learned in the local Talmud Torah in Munkács. When he was ready to attend

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are st ...

, his father did not want to send him to one of the large, Ashkenazi yeshivas of the time for fear that he would lose his Hasidic fervor. Thus, he remained in Munkacs, learning with other ''bachurim'' in the Spinka ''kloiz'' ( synagogue) without a Rav or rosh yeshiva. Occasionally he would ask questions of his uncle, Rabbi Dovid Schlussel, who was a ''dayan'' in the rabbinical court of Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira in Munkacs.

Leadership

Rabbi Hershkowitz played an active role in judging cases of agunahs after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

. He also gave his approbation to hundreds of ''

sefarim ''Sifrei Kodesh'' ( he, ספרי קודש, , Holy books), commonly referred to as ''sefarim'' ( he, ספרים, , books), or in its singular form, ''sefer'', are books of Jewish religious literature and are viewed by religious Jews as sacred. T ...

'' and many organizations benefiting the Jewish world. He was one of the leading American rabbis honored at the Eleventh Annual

Siyum HaShas Siyum HaShas ( he, סיום הש"ס, lit. "completion of the Six Orders f the Talmud) is a celebration of the completion of the Daf Yomi (daily Talmud folio) program, a roughly seven-and-a-half-year cycle of learning the Oral Torah and its comme ...

in Madison Square Garden in 2005, where he read the beginning of Masekhet Berakhot.

References

External links

Hagaon Reb Fishel Hershkowitz blessing students of the Williamsburg Cheder Kindergarten Class of Talmud Torah Sherias Hapleita Sanz-Klausenburg (2008)Rebbe Visiting Hagaon Harav Fishel Hershkowitz Shlit"a, Dayan in Williamsburg and Chaver Bais Din of Sanz-Klausenburg (2009)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hershkowitz, Fishel 1922 births 2017 deaths People from Mukachevo People from Williamsburg, Brooklyn Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American Hasidic rabbis Sanz (Hasidic dynasty) 20th-century American rabbis 21st-century American rabbis Spinka (Hasidic dynasty)