Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinowicz

Grand Rabbi Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinovich (Hebrew: ברוך יהושע ירחמיאל רבינוביץ; 1914–1997), was the Munkacser Rebbe.

Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinowicz
ברוך יהושע ירחמיאל רבינוביץ
Rabbi Baruch Rabinovich
Title	Munkacser Rebbe
Personal life
Born	Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinovich/wicz/wich [var.] September 25, 1914 Siedlce, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	December 26, 1997 Petah Tikva, Israel
Spouse	Chaya Frima Rivka daughter of Chaim Elazar Spira, Yehudis Wallhaus
Children	Tzvi Nosson Dovid Rabinovich (dec.) Chaim Elazar Rabinovich (dec.) Moshe Leib Rabinovich Yitzchok Yakov Rabinovich Yita Wilamowsky, Rachel L'via Grossman (dec.) Meir Betzalel Yair Rabinovich
Parents	Noson Dovid Rabinovich of Parczew (father) Yitta Spira of Stryzow (mother)
Religious life
Religion	Judaism
Jewish leader
Predecessor	Chaim Elazar Spira
Successor	Moshe Leib Rabinovich, Yizchok Yakov Rabinovich
Began	1937
Ended	1946
Main work	Binas Nevonim
Buried	Petah Tikva, Israel
Dynasty	Munkacs

Early years

Boruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel was born in Russian Poland in 1914 to Rabbi Nosson Dovid Rabinovich (1868–1930), the Partzever rebbe, and Yitta Spira. His paternal grandfather was Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov of Biala and his maternal grandfather was Rabbi Moshe Leib Spira of Stryzow (1850–1916), of the Munkacs dynasty. He was engaged to his intended bride at the age of 11. When he was 13, his father-in-law-to-be, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira of Munkacs, took him on a visit to the Holy Land.

Marriage

In 1933 Rabinowicz married Frima Chaya Rivka, the only daughter of his mother's first cousin, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira, the Munkacser dynasty's rebbe, also known as the 'Minchas Elazar'. This set him on course to succeed his father-in-law as rabbi and rebbe of Munkacs. His wedding in 1933 was attended by 20–30,000 guests. Film of the wedding is on the web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and is on display at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.

Rabbi of Munkacs

After his father-in-law's death, Rabinowicz became rebbe of Munkacs in 1937. At the beginning of World War II, he was deported to Poland but released soon afterward. He then moved with his family to Budapest, where he obtained visas and escaped to Palestine, where his wife died in April 1945.

Post-war

In 1946, Rabinowicz tried to become the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, but withdrew from the race. In 1947, he moved to São Paulo, Brazil.^[1] He had become sympathetic to Zionism and the State of Israel, unlike his father-in-law. The Munkatcher chasidim who had survived the war conferred the title of Munkatcher rebbe upon his third son Moshe Leib Rabinovich, who lives in Brooklyn, during the father's lifetime.^[2]

Rabinowicz returned to Israel in 1963 to become Chief Rabbi of Holon. He later moved to Petah Tikva where he headed a small Beis Hamedrash until his death in 1997. His fourth son, Rabbi Yitzchok Yakov Rabinovich, is the rebbe of Dinov and also resides in Brooklyn.

In 1996, Rabinowicz published his works Divrei Nevonim and Binat Nevonim.

See also

• Munkacs (Hasidic dynasty)