Rebbetzin Perel Faiga Babad, a”h Tartikover Rebbetzin

BROOKLYN

It is with great sorrow that we report the petirah of Rebbetzin Perel Faiga Babad, a”h, the widow of Harav Alexander Asher Babad, the Tartikover Rav, zt”l.

The life mission of the nifteres was to carry on and raise her family according to the traditions and ways of her holy ancestors, especially those of her maternal forebear, Harav Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam, the Shineve Rav, zy”a.

With her strong will and character, she managed to preserve this charge throughout her internment in Auschwitz and to raise her children to this standard while living on Manhattan’s cosmopolitan West Side.

The Rebbetzin was born on 7 Nisan 1925 in the Hungarian town of Dole, where her father, Harav Yechiel Greensweig, Hy”d, served as Rav Hatza’ir, and her grandfather, Harav Asher Zelig Greensweig, zt”l, as Rav. It was from her mother, Rebbetzin Rochel Miriam, Hy”d, a descendant of Sanz, Shinev, Ropshitz, and Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk, zy”a, that young Perel Faiga absorbed her passion for upholding the principles and practices of previous generations.

While in Auschwitz, as a teenager, she wrote a siddur from memory on the back pages of camp documents she was able to procure, which she then bound with a piece of wire. She and several siblings and other young women in her barrack were able to daven from this makeshift siddur for the duration of the war.

So precious was this testament to spiritual heroism that the nifteres left a request to be buried with the siddur.

In 1946 the Rebbetzin married the Tartikover Rav, a descendant of generations of famed Galician Rabbanim, in Budapest.

Immigrating to America a year after their marriage, the couple lived in Manhattan, where Rav Babad led the Reishe shtiebel on the Upper East Side for several years and later founded Khal Minchas Chinuch on the West Side.

Their home was open not only to their mispallelim and neighbors, but was a reliable place of refuge for frum Yidden from all communities who found themselves needing a place to spend Shabbos in Manhattan. Hundreds of Yidden and many Rabbanim and Rebbes were recipients of the Rebbetzin’s famous hospitality.

Yehi zichrah baruch.

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