Reb Asher Lijtman, z”l, Killed in Tragic Accident

The Jewish community of Elizabeth, N.J., was aggrieved to hear of the petirah of Reb Asher Lijtman, z”l, 83, who was niftar after being hit by a car Monday night in Boro Park. His wife, Mrs. Diana Lijtman, sustained minor injuries.

“He was a very soft-spoken person. You never heard a bad word out of his mouth about anybody,” said Rabbi Baruch Witkin, who was a chavrusa of Reb Asher for many years. “His son told me that he must have completed the Daf Yomi cycle two or three times.”

Rabbi Yanky Mayer of Misaskim told Hamodia that the Lijtmans were in Boro Park attending a simchah. The elderly couple was walking to their car near the corner of 12th Avenue and 40th Street at around 10:00 p.m. when they were struck by a car making a sharp turn. Reb Asher was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he was niftar early Tuesday morning. Mrs. Lijtman was admitted to Lutheran Medical Center, but has since been released and is recovering at home.

Reb Asher was born in Poland, near Lublin, in 1933. When he was two years old his family moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the 1950s, Reb Asher came to the United States to study in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, where he learned for several years.

The Lijtmans settled first in Newark, but relocated to Elizabeth together with much of the Jewish community when Newark was wracked by violence in 1968. Reb Asher had a long career as an electrical engineer and had only recently retired.

“People tend to use the term ‘ehrlicher Yid’ very loosely, but that’s exactly what he was ­— a simple, quiet, and modest person,” said Rabbi Eliyahu Teitz of Elizabeth’s Jewish Educational Center (JEP), whose father, Rabbi Pinchas Teitz, z”l, founded the town’s Orthodox community. “He was a real shul Yid who went to every shiur that was given and was one of the first members of my father’s Daf Yomi shiur.”

The levayah is scheduled to take place Wednesday morning at JEP in Elizabeth at 11:00 a.m., followed by burial at Wellwood Cemetery on Long Island.

Reb Asher is survived by his wife, Mrs. Diana Lijtman, and sons, Rabbi Avigdor Lijtman of Baltimore and Dr. Saul Lijtman of Teaneck.

Yehi zichro baruch

This article appeared in print on page 16 of the January 7th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.