Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Spira of Bluzhov zt"l
Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Spira of Bluzhov (1841-1924) the famed Bluzhover Rebbe who was also called the '''Tzvi Latzaddik'''. He was the grandson of Tzvi Elimelech Spira of Dinov (1783-1841).
Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Spira of Dinov (1783-1841), author of B'nei Yissaschar was the founder of the Bluzhov, Dinov and Munkacz Chasidic dynasties.
Rabbi Israel Spira of Bluzhov zt"l
Rabbi Israel Spira, The Bluzhover Rebbe (1881-1981) was a descendant of the Dinov and Munkacz Chasidic dynasties. He survived confinement in concentration camps during World War II, including Bergen-Belsen. He came to the US in 1946 and became the spiritual leader of a Chasidic branch in Brooklyn and Israel.
Yaffa Eliach, in Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, tells the story of Rabbi Israel Spira arrival in New York in 1946
An American G.I. translated for him into Yiddish Emma Lazarus' famous lines inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
The rabbi listened intently and wiped a tear from his eye. There he was, the lone survivor of his family; his beard was burnt off, his head and body still covered with open wounds from beatings... He placed his hand on the G.I.'s shoulder and said, 'My friend, the words you have just translated to me are indeed beautiful. We, the few survivors coming to these shores, are indeed poor, tired, and yearning for freedom. But we are no longer masses. We are remnants, a trickle of broken individuals who search for moments of peace in this world, who hope to find a few relatives on these shores.
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