BDE: Rebbetzin Rochel Kviat (Schwartz), a”h

by YS Gold 

We regret to inform you of the petirah of Rebbetzin Kviat, who was married for the second time to Ha’gaon Rav Dovid Kviat, one of the last “alte mirers”, author of the multi-volume Sukkas Dovid, long time maggid shiur in the Mir Brooklyn, and Mara d’Asra for decades of the Agudath Israel of Eighteenth Avenue. 

The nifteres was the daughter of Reb Chaim Dov Ber Chaiton, who hailed from Biyalistok, and came to Montreal in the 1920’s. Her maternal grandfather, Reb Yosef Leib Shano, was sent by the Sfas Emes of Ger to North America in the early 1900’s. Unable to immigrate to New York, he settled in Montreal, where was the only one with a spodik on shabbos the entire city. 

From the earliest age, Rochel was raised on traditions of chessed and mesirus nefesh for Yiddishkeit. She would make the rounds on the trolley with her mother, Rivka Chaiton, to deliver packages for Montreal’s needy—at a time when they lived in utter poverty themselves. 

She married Reb Menachem Mendel Schwartz, and together they raised an illustrious family of Bnei Torah who continue to follow in their ways. 

Following the petirah of her husband, she remarried Rav Kviat in 1997, and stepped into the role of Rebbetzin. 

She was beloved and respected by all who knew her, and continued the golden chain of chessed on which she had been raised to her last years on this earth—always giving to everyone, and always smiling to everyone. 

“She never complained about any of the challenges she endured,” relates a grandson. “She was always filled with emunah and bitachon, and spread that belief of the chessed Hashem to her entire family and to all whom she encountered.” 

“In addition to all her chessed activities, she had tremendous yiras Shomayim, and kovod haTorah,” related an acquaintance. 

The nifteres leave behind a legacy of a family of ehrliche Bnei Torah, and a lifetime of ahavas chessed. 

The Levaya will take place at 1:30 this afternoon at the Agudah of 18th Avenue.