Tefillos Needed for Chabad Rav Brutally Beaten in Ukraine

A Chabad rav is in need of tefillos after he was found brutally beaten at a train station in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, on Friday.

Rabbi Mendel Deutch was found with serious head wounds to his skull. It is believed that he was beaten by a pack of drunkards at the station. The motive for the beating is unclear.

Rabbi Deutch was flown to Tel Hashomer hospital in Israel in critical condition, his nephew, Rabbi Zalman Levitin, the Chabad rabbi in Palm Beach, Florida, told Hamodia. Baruch Hashem, his condition has stabilized, and doctors are pleased with his progress, but Reb Mendel is still in need of tefillos. Readers are asked to daven for the refuah sheleimah of Menachem Mendel Mordechai ben Miriam, b’soch sh’ar cholei Yisrael.

Rabbi Deutch is a Chabad shliach in Eretz Yisrael. He runs the hospitality program at the kevarim of the Baal HaTanya and other tzaddikim in Ukraine and Russia, and he frequently flies back and forth between Eretz Yisrael, Russia and Ukraine. He was in Haditch, Ukraine, for Rosh Hashanah, at the kever of Baal HaTanya.