Elder of Chabad Hasidim in the World: Rabbi Yaakov Eliezer Friedrich, the late, passes away at the age of 102

28 September 2023   

In Belgium, Rabbi Yaakov Eliezer Friedrich, the late, elder of Chabad Hasidim around the world, one of the rabbis of the Chabad community in Antwerp - and a founder and member of the board of the Chabad Talmud Torah in Amsterdam - passed away this evening (Wednesday), at the age of 102. The institution's next target is you! We are opening up an opportunity for you to pursue a prestigious career path. The late Rabbi experienced the horrors of World War II up close, when he remained on Antwerp soil for the entire war years - and miraculously escaped the Nazis. He later earned the privilege of establishing a magnificent Hasidic family. He attributed his longevity to his meticulousness, since the age of ten, to standing in prayer every morning at an early hour - "and standing before the king," as he put it, "in his heart and in his mercy, without regard to any external disturbance." When he was a 6-year-old boy, in 1958, he separated from his parents. This was during the period between the two world wars. His mother was then hospitalized in a hospital following an illness that attacked her. His two sisters were given over to be raised in a Christian church. "That night," Rabbi Freudrich told writer Mandy Cortes in the magazine 'Kfar Chabad'. "After my father left me, I lay on the strange and alienated bed and cried without ceasing. Suddenly, the landlord entered the room, his face red. It turned out that my crying disturbed his rest. He was supposed to get up early in the morning to do his work in the field. He held a slipper in his hand. He threatened me that if I didn't keep quiet, he would hit me with his shoe. I immediately kept quiet. "This was my welcome to the place where I was supposed to start a new chapter in life. I quickly realized in those days that I had to adapt to the new reality. I tried to be a good and obedient boy and a good student. I went to a Catholic school and was an excellent student there. On the surface, I was no different from the other non-Jewish children in the class." In the village where he was staying, there lived a convert named Ruth Tzarfati. Her husband was a Dutch Jew. She led a kosher lifestyle and was a benefactor. She worked as a nurse at a medical center to earn a living. When she heard that there was a Jewish boy living in a gentile home in the village, she began to care for him. At first, she managed to convince the school principal to grant him permission to be ten minutes late for school each day, so that he wouldn't have to participate in the Christian prayers that opened the day at school. Later, Tzarfati tried to do everything in her power to open a window to the world of Judaism, Torah, and mitzvot for the abandoned boy. She invited Friedrich to her home for Passover, for the Seder night. For three years, Friedrich remained in the small Belgian village. He moved between different families after the farmer who had received money from his father for his upbringing threw him out on the street when he did not receive the money he had been promised. The Tzarfati convert set her eyes on the young boy and made sure to move him to the large city of Antwerp, where there was a long-standing Haredi community. Yaakov wandered into the city, and first stayed at the home of a local butcher named Rabbi Alter Braziner, an authentic Rozhin Hasidic Jew of great stature - who did not survive the Holocaust. After about six months, he moved to the city center, in the home of the Karnitzer family, who took care of him devotedly and taught him the letters of the alphabet. [Gallery] Friedrich was almost ten years old at the time, and entered the Jewish school 'Yesodei HaTorah'. He became an excellent student and decided to erase his past. According to him, this is what helped him survive mentally. He decided to forget what he had been through. He spoke little to people and devoured books eagerly. He also celebrated his Bar Mitzvah there. When he finished his studies at the school, he began to study the profession of goldsmithing. He saw a blessing in his studies and taught the craft to others. This was until the outbreak of World War II. During that period, he began to approach Chabad Torah. He studied Hasidism from Rabbi Moshe Tschubel, the late, along with a number of other young men, including the young man Ephraim Wolf, who had approached Chabad in Antwerp in the years leading up to World War II and later became the representative of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in the Holy Land, the director of the central Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva, and the head of the Chabad Chassidim Association in Israel. Later, during World War II, Yaakov Eliezer wandered from city to city and was saved by the grace of God. Friedrich endured many hardships with his family during the war. Most of them are described in the book "Hosanna Nefesh Mebhale" which tells his story. Many times his life was almost taken from him. He was saved by visible miracles time after time after time. A few days before Rosh Hashanah 5750, Brussels and Antwerp were liberated from the Germans and Allied soldiers appeared. Friedrich already felt close to Lubavitch at that time, and exchanged letters with the Rebbe Rayatz. In one of the letters, the Rebbe asked him to inquire about a number of Jews from Poland who were living in Antwerp at that time. Friedrich estimated that these were Jews whom the Rebbe knew from the time he was in Poland. At that time, he also received a complete shipment from the Rebbe that included holy utensils in order to bequeath them to Jews. The shipment also included, among other things, a Torah scroll, and this was placed in a synagogue that was then operating as a kindergarten in Antwerp. "Many Jews received tzitzit and tefillin from me thanks to the shipment that came from the Rebbe." Friedrich did not have time to meet the Rebbe Rayatz face to face. Decades later, in 1965, he traveled to the United States for the first time and entered the ranks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Shortly before that, he began giving Torah lessons in the Netherlands. Friedrich decided to dedicate his life to bringing Jews closer together. He constantly traveled to nearby Holland and taught Jewish children about the purity of the Holy Land. His funeral will take place tonight at 9:15 PM from the 'Holders of Religion' community center in Antwerp, Belgium, to the Pit Life Center in the Netherlands, where he will be buried.