Yehuda Chitrik

Rabbi Yehuda Chitrik (August 28, 1899 – February 14, 2006) was an author and "Mashpia" in the Chabad Hasidic community in Brooklyn, New York.

Early life

Yehuda Chitrik was born in 1899 in Krasnaluk, a small Jewish shtetl in Russia, to a prominent Lubavitch family that traces its roots to the foremost Chassidim of the Alter Rebbe. At the age of 14, he began studying in Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in the village of Lubavitch, where he met the fifth Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn. For the next 12 years, he traveled to many different communities together with the Yeshiva, for the difficulties caused by World War I, the Bolshevik revolution, and the economic pressures to which the Jews were subjected compelled the Yeshiva to move frequently.

In 1926 Chitrik married Kayla Tomarkin, the daughter of Rabbi Aharon Tomarkin, a Rabbi in Kharkov, Ukraine, and began to serve as a "Shochet" until the Russian government forcefully shut down the ritual slaughterhouses. During this period he also met Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who later became the seventh Lubavitcher rebbe.

Post Holocaust

In the turmoil that followed World War II and the Holocaust, Rabbi Chitrik and his family moved to Belgium with the intention of continuing to the United States. But the sixth Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn recognized his skills and asked him to remain in Belgium to support the community and spread Yiddishkeit and Chassidic warmth among the many refugees who had settled in that country.

In 1949, he emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where he was appointed "Mashpia" in the branch of the Lubavitcher Yeshiva established there. After the passing of his wife in 1983, he moved to Brooklyn.

Rabbi Chitrik was the eldest Chabad Chassid for many years, and served as a source of knowledge and inspiration for many. He had four children and eighteen grandchildren, and is survived by over 300 descendants in total.Fact|date=March 2007

Many of his descendants serve as spiritual leaders and rabbis across the globe. Amongst them is his son-in-law [http://membres.lycos.fr/jewishantwerp/ShomreiHadass.htm Rabbi David Moshe Lieberman] , who serves as the chief rabbi of Antwerp, Belgium. Other descendants serve in China, Turkey, [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?AID=304447 Germany] , Australia, [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?AID=118470 Israel] , [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?AID=118610 Canada] , [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?AID=117878 Uruguay] , Brazil, [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?aid=117995 Ukraine] , [http://www.eayc.org/rav.shtml England] and cities across the United States: [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?aid=118560 Bedford, NY] ; [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?aid=117957 Philadelphia, PA] , [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?aid=398217 New York City, NY] ; [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?AID=117984 Munster, IN] ; Oak Park, MI.

Writings

* "Reshimot Devorim", four volumes.
* From My Father's Shabbos Table, A Treasury of Chabad Chassidic Stories

External links

* [http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword.asp?scope=6198&kid=10216 A collection of stories by Yehudah Chitrik] on Chabad.org
* [http://hershco.com/zen/ Books]
* [http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=12083 Rabbi Yehuda Chitrik, 106; Chasidic Storyteller] The Jewish Week
* [http://shmais.org/pages.cfm?page=chabaddetail&ID=829 At 105, the Rabbi Doesn't Sleep Late (New York Times reprint)]