BDE: Reb Yitzchok Aaron Halevi Weiss, z”l

YS GOLD
We regret to inform of you of the passing of Reb Yitzchok Weiss, z”l, a longtime resident of Boro Park. He was 96 years of age, and a survivor of multiple concentration camps including Auschwitz. With his passing we have lost another rare link to the pre-Holocaust world.
The niftar was born in Serdaheli, Hungary, in 1926. In later years, he would describe his hometown as a place saturated with Torah and avodah. “Of the 4,500 Jewish souls, there was not a single mechalel Shabbos in the open!,” he recalled.
“The Rosh Av Beis Din was my master and teacher Rav Asher Anshil Katz, zt”l,” he related. “Learning by the rov, Rav Hillel Weinberger were approximately one hundred bachurim…many of whom came from the surrounding towns. “We davened in the Federweiss Shul, established by my zeide Reb Yitzchok Aaron,” he remembered. “The majority of our family davened there.”
Reb Aaron Yitzchok recalled his blissful childhood, surrounded by loving family and extremely pious Yidden—a beautiful existence that would soon be brutally cut short by the arrival of the Nazis, ym”sh.
On 24 Adar of 1944, the Germans invaded Hungary, and within two days they were in Serdahel. Reb Yitzchok Aaron would lose his entire immediate family and his entire extended family in the Holocaust.
Emerging from the inferno alone, he forged ahead. He spent much time in proximity to tzaddikim and gedolei Yisroel, and this gave him the fortitude to rebuild.
He married the daughter of Reb Berel Frank, one of the chashuve balebatim in Budapest, and together they built a beautiful Torah family.
Moving to Boro Park in the 1960’s, Reb Yitzchok Aaron davened in Mattesdorf and in Nitra for many decades.
With his passing, we have lost a link to a glorious world who transmitted and perpetuated that spirit for generations to come.
The Levaya will take place in Shomrei Hadas at 10:30 this morning. To watch it live click here.
Yehi zichro baruch.