BDE: Mrs. Reizel Aftergut, a”h
by YS Gold
We regret to inform you of the passing of Mrs. Aftergut, a Holocaust survivor and longtime Boro Park resident. She was 87 years of age.
She was born to Reb Burich Moshe and Lana Wechsler in the town of Tarnow, Poland. She was a young child when the war broke out, and her father was shot by the German’s as he was working to identify people in the ghetto who had died. She and her mother and brother went to Siberia, where she would pick up woodchips in order to earn her rations.
They were fortunate to survive the war, and Reizel came along with her mother and, ybl”ch, her brother to the United States. She married Reb Moshe Aftergut, a legendary Bobover chossid who directed the “Purim shpiel” in Bobov at the instruction of the Divrei Shlomo of Bobov. Thus, the Aftergut’s became longtime prominent Boro Park residents, intent on rebuilding from the Churban.
“The love of my grandmother to her grandchildren was unconditional,” relates a grandchild. “They were constantly in the lives of their grandchildren. And it was not only her own family to whom she was dedicated. “She was an extremely noble and refined woman,” recalled a neighbor. “Whenever we would meet her, she exuded nobility and kindness even to the young children of the area.”
The nifteres was also extremely active in various chessed organizations.
Mrs. Aftergut was nifteres on Motzei Shabbos, and the Levaya will take place 2:30 at Shomrei Hadas (watch it live), and she will be laid to rest near her husband in the Bobover cemetery.
Yehi zicha baruch.