BDE: The Alesker Rebbe, zt”l, Transformed Kensington Neighborhood with Torah and Tefillah

It is with deep sadness that we report on the petirah of the Alesker Rebbe, Rav Yitzchok Ashkenazi, zt”l, a scion of great and holy dynasties, a figure of wisdom and tzidkus, who singlehandedly transformed the entire area of Kensington, and whose life over the last two decades was one of mesirus nefesh and Kiddush Hashem as he transcended a crippling illness. He was 78 years of age. 

Rav Yitzchok was born into the illustrious Ashkenazi family in the year 1944. His father was Rav Meilich Ashkenazi, zt”l, known as Melbourner Rov—but his roots went back to the Alesker dynasty and generations of Rebbes who traced their lineage to the Sar Shalom of Belz, among other great Chassidic luminaries. The Melbourner Rov was a talmid of Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin, and ascended to Eretz Yisroel during the 1930’s, where his son, Rav Yitzchok, was born. 

He learned under the Satmar Rebbe, in Williamsburg, and he married the daughter of the previous Kalever Rebbe. This wedding, in the early 1960’s, was one of the first Rebbishe weddings in America following the churban, and the Rebbe was one of the first postwar “rebbishe yungeleit” to begin learning, leading, and building. Both he and tbl”ch, the Rebbetzin, were born during the war years. 

He opened a yeshiva in Williamsburg, and named it Lev Somei’ach-Alesk, in the name of his holy forbears. He sought to further transmit the holy legacy, and opened a shul on Coney Island Avenue in Flatbush, the site of the current Modzitzer Beis Medrash. Upon the advice of the Satmar Rebbe, he moved his shul to Kensington. 

Most of our readers cannot appreciate what Kensington looked like in those days. There were very few Yidden, and the neighbors—including those in the numerous adjacent apartment buildings—were not very friendly, and often quite rowdy. Children would not walk themselves in the street, certainly not at night. 

But the Rebbe had a vision. 

And over the ensuing half century, he would slowly transform the entire neighborhood—with Khal Lev Somei’ach serving as the spiritual center of the neighborhood. 

It was built slowly, on the lower floors of the apartment building, in various small wings. A yeshiva was added. And over the years, the Shul served as host to many yeshivos—for ba’alei teshuvah, for those who needed special care... Alesk was the place where they could find a home. 

The Rebbe was known for his deep wisdom, and many would come to consult him.

Around twenty years ago, the Rebbe suffered a debilitating stroke—and thus began a new chapter in his life; one of complete mesirus nefesh, transcending an illness with fortitude that is impossible to fathom. 

Chassidic singer Reb Sruly Werdyger is a resident of the neighborhood, and davens in Alesk during the week. He recalls: “the Rebbe was a ba’al yisurim norah v’ayoim. For the twenty years of Rebbe’s illness, he never missed a minyan... this entailed him needing to be carried in and out, and assisted with every move. 

“Kensington definitely owes him a lot; he was one of the main driving forces of Torah and chessed in the neighborhood. The Torah, tefillah, and chiyus that he infused here through his vision and fortitude will be an everlasting credit to his legacy,” he said. 

The Rebbe’s children have stood as his side, and helped renovate the beis medrash in the last decades into a grand center—while according incredible honor to their father, the Rebbe, zt”l. 

As the Rebbe’s purified neshomoh ascends Heavenward, welcomed by his illustrious ancestors,  he leaves behind an incredible legacy, in his accomplished descendants—who have married into illustrious dynasties, and who serve as rabbonim and dayonim all over—and through his life of dedication to build Yiddishkeit with incredible mesirus nefesh. 

The levaya will take place this evening at 7:00 at the Alesker Beis Medrash on Avenue F and East 2nd Street.