1. Dovid Bornsztain, spelled Borenstein, Bornstein and Bernstein, known as the Chasdei Dovid, was the third Rebbe of the Sochatchov Hasidic dynasty.
17 Facts About Dovid Bornsztain
1. 2.
Dovid Bornsztain succeeded his father, Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain, as Rebbe upon the latter's death in 1926.
3.
Dovid Bornsztain was the eldest son of Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain and his wife Yuta Leah.
4.
Dovid Bornsztain had a younger brother, Chanoch Henoch, and at least one sister.
5.
At the time of his birth, his grandfather, Rabbi Avrohom Dovid Bornsztain, later known as the Avnei Nezer, was serving as Rav of Nasielsk.
6.
Young Dovid Bornsztain was taught privately by Rabbi Yitzchak Shlomo Lieberman of Ozorkow, but his primary teacher during his childhood was his grandfather, the Avnei Nezer.
7.
In 1891 Dovid Bornsztain was engaged to Rachel, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Yisrael Morgenstern, the Pilover Rebbe.
8.
Two years later, Dovid Bornsztain married Esther Weingut, the daughter of Rabbi Mottel Weingut, a Ger Hasid from Wola Zadybska.
9.
Dovid Bornsztain became known as one of the generation's leading Rebbes.
10.
Dovid Bornsztain often spoke of the idea of settling the Land of Israel and encouraged his Hasidim to emigrate there.
11.
Dovid Bornsztain was quoted as saying that he himself would have emigrated there, were it not for the thousands of Hasidim in Poland who depended on his leadership.
12.
Dovid Bornsztain eventually lost his rights to the land, as well as the money he had invested in it.
13.
Dovid Bornsztain supervised the education of several hundred Sochatchover yeshiva students in the ghetto and provided solace and encouragement to many.
14.
Dovid Bornsztain was the first to warn the residents of the ghetto that their lives were in danger.
15.
Dovid Bornsztain convened a meeting of rabbis in Tammuz 1942 to warn them, but many did not believe that the danger was so great.
16.
Dovid Bornsztain died there of heart failure on 17 November 1942.
17.
Dovid Bornsztain was the last person to be buried in the Gensha Street cemetery in Warsaw, and 500 Jews attended his funeral.