Abba Avraham Shmuel Twersky (1872–1947), known as Shmuel Abba Twersky, was a

Rebbe A Rebbe ( yi, רבי, translit=rebe) or Admor ( he, אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spiritu ...

of the Makarover

Hasidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

. He succeeded his father as Makarover Rebbe of

Berdichev Berdychiv ( uk, Берди́чів, ; pl, Berdyczów; yi, באַרדיטשעװ, Barditshev; russian: Берди́чев, Berdichev) is a historic city in the Zhytomyr Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center ...

, Ukraine, in 1920, and presided as Makarover Rebbe of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

, Manitoba, Canada, from 1927 to 1947.

Early life and family

Shmuel Abba Twersky was born to Grand Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Twersky (1844–1920), a direct descendant of the

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about ...

Hasidic dynasty, who was the Makarover Rebbe of

and

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

. His mother Chavah was a daughter of

Yehoshua Rokeach Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach (1825 – February 3, 1894), known as the ''Mitteler Ruv'', was the second Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty. He combined Torah scholarship with practical common sense to guide thousands of Hasidim and to fight the Hask ...

, the second

Belzer Belzer ( or ), or Beltzer , is a Yiddish surname. It derives from the adjectival form of ''Belz Belz ( uk, Белз; pl, Bełz; yi, בעלז ') is a small city in Lviv Oblast of Western Ukraine, near the border with Poland, located between the ...

Rebbe. Shmuel Abba married his first cousin, Rickel Twersky, the daughter of his father's brother, David Twersky of Kiev. They had one son and one daughter. As a young married man, he was known for his proficiency in

Torah study Torah study is the study of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature, and similar works, all of which are Judaism's religious texts. According to Rabbinic Judaism, the study is done for the purpose of the ''mitzvah'' ("comma ...

. Upon his father's death in 1920, he and his brother Tzvi Aryeh ( 1938) became Makarover Rebbes in Berdichev. Later he briefly moved his court to Mezerich. In the wake of

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...

s during the 1917–1921

Ukrainian War of Independence The Ukrainian War of Independence was a series of conflicts involving many adversaries that lasted from 1917 to 1921 and resulted in the establishment and development of a Ukrainian republic, most of which was later absorbed into the Soviet U ...

, he and his family fled to

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...

, Latvia.

Canada

The Makarover Hasidic community in

, Manitoba, Canada, included numerous members who had immigrated there due to the Ukrainian pogroms. They invited Twersky to be their leader. Twersky's move was stalled by two years of bureaucratic

red tape Red tape is an idiom referring to regulations or conformity to formal rules or standards which are claimed to be excessive, rigid or redundant, or to bureaucracy claimed to hinder or prevent action or decision-making. It is usually applied to ...

. Finally he was cleared for immigration and departed by ship from

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 ...

, France, in December 1927. According to an article in the local Yiddish newspaper, he was greeted at the Winnipeg train station by "several hundred Hasidim". His community bought him a house on Flora Avenue, where a large number of Jewish immigrants resided. Later he moved to Boyd Avenue, where he opened a

beth midrash A ''beth midrash'' ( he, בית מדרש, or ''beis medrash'', ''beit midrash'', pl. ''batei midrash'' "House of Learning") is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall." It is distinct from a synagogue (''beth kne ...

in his house. Twersky was a prominent leader of the Winnipeg Jewish community. However, he distanced himself from community discord and in-fighting. On June 12th 2022 a group of belz Hasidim organized an overnight stay in Winnipeg with the help of Rabbi Altein of chabad Winnipeg in order to pray for the Holy Spirit of the tzadik Rabbi Shmiel aba twersky after many decades that people have not been to his holy grave and to say kadish for the Rabbi in form of a minyan., May the holy tzadik Rest In Peace and be mashpia and makir tov to them and to all of yisroel.

Personal life

Twersky's wife and two children joined him over two years after his arrival in Winnipeg. His wife died suddenly in February 1930 at the age of 54. Twersky's son Yitzchak Yaakov became principal of a

Talmud Torah Talmud Torah ( he, תלמוד תורה, lit. 'Study of the Torah') schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of religious school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary educ ...

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...

; Twersky also had a daughter, Tzipporah. Twersky died on 2 June 1947 (14

Sivan ''Sivan'' (Hebrew: סִיוָן, Standard ''Sīvan'', Tiberian ''Sīwān''; from Akkadian ''simānu'', meaning "Season; time") is the ninth month of the civil year and the third month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a ...

5707). He was buried in an

ohel Ohel may refer to: *Ohel (social services), a children's home and family services organization in New York *Ohel (biblical figure), the son of Zerubbabel, mentioned in I Chronicles *Ohel (Chabad-Lubavitch), burial place of the sixth and seventh Lub ...

in the Shaarey Zedek Cemetery in Winnipeg beside his wife. Many people came to pray at his ohel in the years after his death.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Twersky, Shmuel Abba 1872 births 1947 deaths Hasidic rebbes Canadian Orthodox rabbis 20th-century Russian rabbis Canadian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent People from Berdychiv People from Winnipeg 20th-century Canadian rabbis