Gitel Mirel Breindel Leah Weinberg

נפטרה כט תמוז תשע״ד ע"ה

This is a film made by her family: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDTgpnIJJwc
Mother and Grandmother of Tolna Rebbes, Rebbetzin Gittel Weinberg Passes Away at 85
By Pearl Herzog

Before Pesach, a man came to see the Tolna Rebbe of Yerushalayim, Rabbi Yitzchak Menahem Weinberg shlita and presented him with a thousand dollars. "Please give this to your mother," the man said, "to distribute to the family for Yom Tov. I have tremendous Hakoros Hatova to her."
In response to the Rebbe's query as to what his mother had done to merit this generosity, the man related:
"Many years ago, I was a bochur in the Kol Torah Yeshiva in Bayit Vegan. Shabbos Hagadol was approaching and I had nowhere to stay. The Yeshiva was closed and my friends had gone to Chutz La'aretz. Someone recommended that I go to the Tolna Beis Midrash and find a bench to sleep on. When the Rebbe saw me, he directed me to his daughter's home. "She will take care of you," he assured me.
"I was very apprehensive about going to her home. It is one thing to sleep in a shul where you don't invade some-one's privacy, but days before Yom Tov, when there is all the stress of getting rid of the Chometz, I was afraid I would be too much of a burden.
"Your mother took me in and treated me like royalty. It was one of the most wonderful Shabboses I had ever experienced in my life and I will never forget it. This is a token of my appreciation to her."

The aforementioned story is but one of the hundreds of stories of the countless chassadim of Rebbetzin Gittel Twersky Weinberg who passed away on the 29th of Tamuz at the age of 85.

Born in New York to Rabbi Yochanan and Pearl (Langner) Twersky, Gittel moved to Montreal at the age of 4, where her father established a Tolna Beis Midrash.
Rebbetzin Gittel Weinberg's mother, Rebbetzin Zipporah Pearl Twersky, a gifted Yiddish poetess was the daughter of Rabbi Moshe Langner, the Strettiner Rebbe of Toronto, a Tzaddik and well known composer of Niggunim who inspired thousands of Chassidim. Rabbi Langner and his wife Rebecca were first cousins and descended from the Strettiner, Kaliver, Zidichoiv, and Rozler Chassidic dynasties, as well as from Rebecca (Heller) Eichenstein, the eighth daughter of the Tosfos Yom-Tov, Rabbi Yom-Tov Lippmann Heller.
The Rebbetzin's father Rabbi Yochanan Twersky was descended from the Maggid of Czernobel through his son Rav David of Tolna.

Rabbi Yochanan Twersky's father, Rabbi Mordecai David Twersky, was reportedly the first Chassidish Rebbe of New York. Gittel's zivug, Rabbi Yisroel Weinberg, was born in Poland and raised in Toronto, Canada, He was the son of Lubliner Chassidim and a Talmid of Torah Vadaas of New York where he learned under Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky ZTL. The couple married several years after the Holocaust when the State of Israel was being established. Extremely idealistic, they decided to make Eretz Yisrael their home. The couple moved there in 1949 when Gittel was pregnant with their first child, Ray, the mother of the present Tolna Rebbe of Ashdod. Gittel took with her on the trip to Israel her exquisite wedding gown that she wore and that had been on display in a vitrine in Canada. This dress was lent to many brides of the "Yaldei Teheran," the children of Teheran who were refugees in the newly established state. Gittel's husband, Rabbi Weinberg, eventually became employed in the Israeli government in the Misrad HaDatot (Ministry of Religious Affairs) and he served as her true partner in all her chesed endeavors. Both Gittel and her husband and her parents made Bayit Vegan their home, when this neighborhood was just being established. The Tolna Rebbe set up a Beis Midrash on 60 Rechov HaPisgah with the Weinbergs initially living on the same block.

Gittel's four sons were taken under the wing of the Tolna Rebbe, who often took them to the Gerrer Rebbe. Gittel's second daughter, Chava Levy, lost her battle to cancer over ten years ago. When Gittel's son-in-law decided to remarry a widow to help raise his children, Gittel and her husband called up the widow's in-laws who had lost a son and told them: "We both lost our children but now our grandchildren are getting new parents to replace them. Let us put our pain aside and join our in-law children and be mesameach them with their new spouses."

The widow's parents agreed and they and the entire Weinberg family, although aching from having lost their daughter and sibling, nevertheless danced for joy together with the new couple. The new wife of Rebbetzin Gittel's son-in-law became so close that she and her husband would visit Rebbetzin and Rabbi Weinberg on a weekly basis. Rebbetzin Weinberg treated all the combined family's grandchildren (including two born to the new couple) as her very own.

One of the two children born to the new couple is actually named Yochanan, after Rebbetzin Gittel's father, the late Tolna Rebbe. When the Weinberg family had posters put up around Jerusalem announcing the petira of Rebbetzin Weinberg, the Levy family, who were not even blood relatives, were listed among the other children as the Mitablim (mourners), so close was the Rebbetzin to them.

The Rebbetzin's daughter-in-law, Esther (Nemetsky) Weinberg, who is a social worker, was once approached by a very agitated patient. Her husband, who is a guard, accidentally shot someone, who fortunately survived, but was wounded. As a result, the husband was forbidden to return home and live with his family until the court date, two weeks away, because he was perceived as a danger. Since he was from Chutz La'aretz and had no family in Israel, the wife cried, her husband had nowhere to go. Esther asked her husband if he could ask his parents; maybe they would be willing to take in this "shooter" into their home. When Reb Shloime Weinberg asked his mother, he did not want to make her feel obligated, so he didn't mention that this gentleman had nowhere else to go, that he was desperate. He was just wondering, he said if possibly his parents could host this "shooter" for two weeks. "Of course!" was the Rebbetzin's warm response. And until he was permitted to return home after the judge exonerated him, he was not only hosted physically by the Rebbetzin, but with her warm and smiling personality, she made him feel at ease. Rebbetzin Gittel Weinberg is survived by her husband, Rabbi Yisroel Weinberg, Rifki Malkiel (the mother of the Tolna Rebbe of Ashdod), Rabbi Yitzchok Menahem Weinberg, Reb Leibie Weinberg, Reb Shloime Weinberg, Reb Motel Weinberg and Mrs. Shira Graz.

She is buried on Har HaMenuchot.
Yehi Zichrah Baruch
here is a beautiful movie about the mime pearl by her family
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl3FyveHbc0

נפטרה כט תמוז תשע״ד.

• Immigration: Nov 1949 - ישראל
• Residence: וייסברג חיים 3/1ירושלים ישראל
  • Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Apr 2 2018, 20:25:29 UTC