BD”E: Harav Yissachar Dov (Berish) Weiss, Zt”l, of Manchester

Harav Weiss, zt”l.

Harav Yissachar Dov (Berish) Weiss, zt”l, the Rosh Hakahal of the Satmar community in Manchester, England, was niftar Thursday morning at the age of 90. Harav Berish Weiss was the only son of the Gaavad, Harav Yitzchak Yaakov Weiss, zt”l, the Minchas Yitzchak.

Harav Weiss contracted the coronavirus recently, but his condition had already improved. This week he was hospitalized in Manchester, due to internal bleeding. His condition deteriorated and he returned his soul to its Creator.

He was born to his father, the Minchas Yitzchak, and his mother, Rebbetzin Alta Devora Leah, Hy”d, the daughter of Harav Pinchas Tzimetbaum, Hy”d, Rosh Beis Din in Grosswardein, Romania. Reb Berish was born in Grosswardein.

He went through the tribulations of the Holocaust when he was just 14 years old, and together with his father was taken for forced labor in Hungary by the Nazis.

Together they hid in a bunker in Grosswardein and from there fled to Bucharest in Romania. His mother perished there on 2 Kislev 5705/1944.

At the end of the war, his father, the Minchas Yitzchak, returned to Grosswardein to try to save his writings and property before immigrating to Eretz Yisrael. Seeing the state of the local Jewish community, he decided to stay and serve as their Rav. He dealt with the post-Holocaust agunos and founded a yeshivah there, named Beis Pinchas after his father-in-law who perished in the Holocaust.

When he came of age, Reb Berish married the daughter of Harav Mordechai Yaakov Breisch, zt”l, Rav in Zurich, and the author of She’eilos U’teshuvos Chelkas Yaakov.

He later moved to Manchester where he founded the Satmar community and was appointed the Rosh Hakahal. He was noted for his acts of tzedakah and chessed, which he performed with a generous heart and a willing soul.

Every year Reb Berish would come to Eretz Yisrael for the yahrtzeit of his father, zt”l.

His aron will arrive in Eretz Yisrael on Friday and he will be buried on Har Hazeisim in Yerushalayim, next to his father, the Minchas Yitzchak.

Yehi zichro baruch.

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