Ben Zion Halberstam The First: Encyclopedia - Ben Zion Halberstam The First

Ben Zion Halberstam (The First)

Ben Zion Halberstam (pronounced Ben Tzion) (1874-1941) was the leader of the Bobover Hasidim. At the age of thirty-one he succeeded his father, Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam (1847-1905) as the Rebbe ("grand rabbi") of Bobov thus being crowned as the spiritual leader of thousands of Hasidim.

He was a scion of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (1798-1876). He was the author of a Hassidic commentary on the Bible called Kedushas Tzion. Rabbi Ben Zion was murdered by the Nazis in 1941, and was succeeded by his son Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam (1907-2000), who brought the Bobover dynasty to the United States.

Ben Zion Halberstam married his relative Chaya Freidel Halberstam, a granddaughter of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz. Together they had 11 children.

1) Devorah Leah Halberstam married her relative Yaakov Yisrael Twerski from Hornistipol (born in 1898 - died in 1973).

2) Rivka Beila Halberstam married Chaim Perlman, and later married her mothers cousin Yecheskel Shraga Halberstam.

3) Nechama Golda Halberstam married Moshe Stempel. Moshe Stempel was murdered by the Nazis together with his father-in-law Ben Zion Halberstam. After the Second World War Nechama Golda remarried to Yehosua Meir Freshwater of Sassov.

4) Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam (born 1907) married Bluma Rachel Teitelbaum. His first wife did not survive the war. He remarried to Frieda Rubin.

5) Bracha Halberstam married her relative Shlomo Rubin (died in 1941).

6) Gitsche Halberstam married Mordechai Shraga Lipschitz (died in 1984).

7) Chaim Yehoshua Halberstam (born in 1912 - died in Siberia in 1943) married his relative Leah Halberstam.

8) Yecheskel Dovid Halberstam (born 1914 - died 1978) married his relative Rachel Rivka Horowitz.

9) Moshe Aaron Halberstam (born in 1920).

10) Shaindel Raatze Halberstam married a disciple of her father, Yisrael Dov Weitz of Biale Bilitz.

11) Malka Halberstam married Yisrael Jacober.

Bobov Lineage is talked about in the book Nor The Moon By Night ISBN 0873067673.

See also

• Hasidic Judaism
• Sanz (Hasidic dynasty)

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