Naftali Halberstam

Who was Naftali Halberstam?

Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Halberstam was the Grand Rebbe of Bobov from August 2000 until March 2005. He succeeded his father, Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam, as Grand Rebbe of Bobov.

Rabbi Naftali Halberstam was born in Bobowa, Poland in 1931. His mother and two siblings died in the Holocaust, and as the war began to end, when Rabbi Naftali was a teenager, his father, Rabbi Shlomo, managed to arrange for him to go to the Holy Land. Rabbi Shlomo remained in Europe, so Rabbi Naftali was not sure if his father had survived the war.

Rabbi Naftali lived for several years in Zion, where he received his rabbinical ordination. After the war he found out that his father had indeed survived, and had relocated to New York. In the late 1940s, he moved to New York, where he was reunited with his father. On his father's death in 2000, he became the Grand Rebbe of Bobov. He died on March 23, 2005. Rabbi Naftali was buried next to his father in Floral Park Cemetery in New Jersey.

Halberstam's wife, Rebbetzin Hesa, died on 15 May 2011 aged 80.