Prominent Gur hasid Rabbi Haim Yaakov Naftali Zilberberg passed away Friday night at age 76, collapsing moments before he made kiddush for his family.
Rabbi Zilberberg moved to Israel at the age of 14 to study at the Gur Yeshiva and was a protege of the "Beit Yisrael" rebbe of Gur.
He lived for many years on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, where he became a close confidant of the Rebbes from the Rozhin dynasty. Even as Tel Aviv's haredi community dwindled, Rabbi Zilberberg remained in the city for many years, devotedly managing the area’s only strictly kosher grocery store.
For many years, he lived in Krakow, Poland, where he devotedly provided kosher and nourishing food to thousands of Jews.
In recent years, he joined the Gur community in Jerusalem, and became one of the prominent figures in the community of yeshiva dean Rabbi Shaul Alter and in the ‘Pnei Menachem’ study hall.
His funeral will take place Saturday night, leaving from the Pnei Menachem study hall in Jerusalem, proceeding to the Shamgar Funeral Home and then to Har Hamenuchot, where he will be interred.