BDE: Harav Avraham Yitzchak Sasonkin, 84, OBM
With great sadness we report the passing of Harav Avraham Yitzchak Sasonkin OBM, a Shliach of the Rebbe and patriarch of a large Lubavitch family.
He was 84 years old.
Avraham Yiztchak was born in Leningrad to Rabbi Moshe and Ita Sasonkin during the rule of the Soviet regime. While still a child, his father was suddenly arrested for his work in the Jewish community and never heard from again.
With the outbreak of World War II, the Sasonkin family traveled to Samarkand before fleeing Russia with many other Lubavitch families through Czechoslovakia to Poland.
During the daring escape, the families were forced to sneak on foot across the final border out of Soviet land. During the final few miles, the group was forced to hide in silence due to nearby military activity. As one of people in the group panicked, of the guides hired to smuggle them across the border fired a gun to quiet the group, tragically striking Ita Sasonkin, Avraham Yitzchak’s mother, and wounding her. She succumbed to her wounds the very next day.
An orphan from both parents, he was brought up by his grandparents before traveling to Eretz Yisroel and studying in the Chabad Yeshivos in Rishon Letzion and Lod.
In the Year תש”כ, Avraham Yistzhok traveled to the Rebbe with friends including Avraham Dunin to spend the year studying. After initially overstaying his Visa and getting permission to remain for extra time by the Rebbe, he and Dunin were told by the Rebbe to return to Eretz Yisroel so as not to give the Israeli government cause to withhold permissions for other young men to visit.
On his return trip, which took place by boat, the Rebbe tasked the bochurim to make a stopover and spread Yiddishkeit. R’ Avraham Yitzchak’s stop took place in England.
On his return to Eretz Yisroel, he was appointed to a position in the Chabad Yeshiva in Lod, and when the time came for a Shidduch, the Rebbe himself called R’ Avraham Yitzchak “A man of many virtues”.
In ה’תשכ”ב, Avrahamm Yitzchak was married to Sara Rivkah Posner, the daughter of the famed Shliach Rabbi Sholom Posner of Pittsburg, PA. The Rebbe himself was Mesader Kiddushin.
The couple returned to Eretz Yisroel where they eventually settled in Avital and joined the school there as staff members. Their Shlichus expanded from there to include the community.
With the outbreak of the Six Day War, he enlisted in the IDF and served in the Armored Corps where he was stationed together with the members of his company by the Suez Canal.
Later on, when a special program was initiated for Russian speaking Jews in Migdal Haemek, Rabbi Sosonkin was tapped for a leading role, where he remained for many years.
He is survived by his wife Sara Rivka Sasonkin and their children; Rabbi Moshe Sasonkin, Mrs. Chanie Kalmenson, Rabbi Berele Sasonkin, Mrs. Itty Goldshmid, Rabbi Nochum Sasonkin, Rabbi Yechezkel Sasonkin, Mrs. Malky Goldshmid, Rabbi Yehuda Sasonkin, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He was predeceased by his son Rabbi Mendel Sasonkin, the shliach to Akron, Ohio due to an illness.
Levaya information to be announced.
Shiva information to be announced.
Baruch Dayan Hoemes
