But in the world of the rabbinate: The great Rabbi Yosef Meir Glicksberg, zt"l, rabbi of Givatayim and former member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, passed away today (Sunday) at the age of 91.
The late Rabbi Zacharias was born in Poland on the 10th of Nisan 1933 to his father, Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Glicksberg Zacharias, who served as a rabbi in Poland and after World War II served as Chief Rabbi in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
During the war, his family was exiled to Siberia.
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In 1953, the rabbi immigrated to Israel with the "Children of Tehran" group and was among the children with whom the rabbi of Ponivez, the late Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, founded his institutions. He later studied at the Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem, where he was ordained to the rabbinate by the Rosh Yeshiva, the late Rabbi Yehezkel Sarna, and by the late Rabbi Reuven Katz and the late Rabbi Yechiel Michal Feinstein.
In 1975, he married his wife, Dr. Ayla née Frankel, and the two moved to live in Tel Aviv, where he served as a synagogue rabbi and studied at the kollel.
In 1977, he was invited to found a yeshiva in São Paulo, Brazil, and engaged in teaching and education in the city's Jewish community.
In 1952, he was appointed as the rabbi and spiritual director of the 'Ha'Darom' Yeshiva in Rehovot, under the leadership of the gaon Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Meltzer, zt"l, and served as a member of the rabbinate in Rehovot, as the rabbi of the Hapoel Hamizrahi neighborhoods in the city, and established a youth synagogue.
At the beginning of 1967, he was elected a member of the Rabbinical Council in Givatayim, and after about six months he was appointed the city's chief rabbi. In Givatayim, he founded a high school for the study of Talmud and Poskim, and was active in giving Torah lessons throughout the country.
In 1974, he was ordained as a deacon and elected to the Chief Rabbinate Council, where he served until 1979.
During his years as a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, he served in key positions, including chairman of the Education and Information Committee, coordinator of the Conversion Arrangements Committee, coordinator of kashrut relations between the Chief Rabbinate and rabbis in the Diaspora, chairman of the National Kashrut Committee, member of the Examinations Committee for City Rabbis, and member of the committee for preparing the Religious Councils Law.
He also served as chairman of the Rabbinical Council of Israel, initiated training courses for rabbis, and published numerous articles on halacha and agga.
He is survived by his children, Rabbi Ephraim Gliksberg, director Naftali Gliksberg, Rabbi Itiel Gliksberg, who serves as the neighborhood rabbi in Givatayim, and Mrs. Tzippa Finkel, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
