at the age of 65.
(File photo: Tina Fineberg)
A member of Israel’s Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbinical Court, Lipsker and his wife Sarah opened the desert town’s central Chabad House 31 years ago after moving to the city at the suggestion of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. Since then, he presided over the opening of two religious schools, a synagogue, soup kitchen, numerous Jewish ritual baths, and several learning institutes for immigrants and elderly citizens.
But after his burial Thursday, the rabbi – who in addition to his wife, leaves behind four daughters and dozens of grandchildren – was most remembered by locals as a spiritual guide and benevolent mentor to generations of Arad’s children and adults of all ages.
Desert Population Grieves After Passing of Beloved Chief Rabbi
at the age of 65.
(File photo: Tina Fineberg)
A father figure to thousands of Jews in the southern Israeli city of Arad, Rabbi Ben Tzion Lipsker passed away Wednesday at the age of 65. The sudden loss of one of the city’s two chief rabbis comes just a year before the slated completion of a massive complex to house institutions Lipsker personally founded over a career spanning more than three decades.
A member of Israel’s Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbinical Court, Lipsker and his wife Sarah opened the desert town’s central Chabad House 31 years ago after moving to the city at the suggestion of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. Since then, he presided over the opening of two religious schools, a synagogue, soup kitchen, numerous Jewish ritual baths, and several learning institutes for immigrants and elderly citizens.
But after his burial Thursday, the rabbi – who in addition to his wife, leaves behind four daughters and dozens of grandchildren – was most remembered by locals as a spiritual guide and benevolent mentor to generations of Arad’s children and adults of all ages.
Speaking at a funeral service before a procession carried Lipsker’s body to Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives cemetery, Arad Mayor Gideon Bar-Lev said that the rabbi’s most prominent feature was the care and dedication he displayed to countless individuals of all backgrounds.
“He had a warm heart, a big heart,” said Bar-Lev. “That was the thing that stood out about him: his heart. It was huge.”
Twice a year, before the holidays of Yom Kippur and Shavuot, Lipsker gathered of the city’s nursery school children and bless them at his synagogue. Over time, it became a much-awaited ritual, and just before he passed, the rabbi made arrangements for the ceremony to continue in his absence.
“He wanted to make sure that there would be enough candies,” recalled Rabbi Shimon Elharar, director of Chabad of the Dead Sea. “Throughout the years, he worried about every little thing, like a father.”
The funeral procession stopped in front of each of the institutions that Lipsker founded, as well at the city’s non-religious ORT high school, where the entire student body waited on the sidewalk and recited Psalms in memory of the man who taught them about each upcoming Jewish holiday.
“He would tell them stories; he would sing to them,” said Rabbi Avraham Zalmanov, manager of Arad’s Chabad House. “There was practically not one child in Arad who didn’t know him.”
