Yosef Yechiel Mechel Lebovits

Rabbi Yosef Yechiel Mechel Lebovits

Rabbi Yosef Yechiel Mechel Lebovits (Yiddish: יוסף יחיאל מיכל לעבאוויטש) is a Hasidic rebbe and the founder of the Nikolsburg-Monsey Hasidic community.

Family[]

The Nikolsburg Beit Midrash

Reb Lebovits was born in New York to Rabbi Baruch Yehuda Lebovitz (1908 - 1951) and Yentel Schnitzler (1910 - 1976). His father Reb Baruch was from Hajós, Hungary and helped revive Jewish life in the D.P. camps. His father's family claimed direct paternal descent from (d. 1786), founder of the Zlotshov Hasidic dynasty. His mother Yentel Schnitzler (1910 - 1976) was the daughter of Rabbi Shraga Shmuel Schnitzler (1889 - 1979) the Tchabe Rav of Jerusalem who was the great-grandson of Rabbi Baruch Schnitzler of Kaliv (1765 - 1820) who the Schnitzler family claim to have been the son-in-law of Rabbi Shmelke Horowitz of Nikolsburg (1726 - 1778) from where the Nikolsburg-Monsey community is named. However several genealogists and historians have questioned the Schnitzler connection to Reb Shmelke. Through his mother, Reb Lebovitz is the third-great-grandson of (1785 - 1856) who was the grandson of Rabbi Zusha Auerbach of Hanipol (1718 - 1800) and the great-great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov (1698 - 1760) who founded Hasidic Judaism. Reb Lebovits married the daughter of Rabbi Eleazar Meisels, the Av Beit Din of Ihel-Chicago and a descendant of the Meisel family.

Biography[]

After his father's death, Reb Lebovits' mother Yentel married Rabbi Eliezer Zusia Portugal (1898 - 1982), the first Skulener Rebbe. In his early years, Reb Lebovits studied in the Satmar Yeshiva, under the tutelage of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum (1887 - 1979) who he had private sessions with every Wednesday. Reb Lebovits also had a close connection to the Vizhnitz Rebbe, Rabbi Mordechai Hager (1922 - 2018) who named Reb Lebovits the Nikolsburger Rebbe. At first Reb Lebovits held court in Williamsburg, later relocating to Spring Valley in Monsey. The community of Nikolsburg in Monsey has a yeshiva for young adults and boys, a kollel and a beis midrash. He has also authored several works, the most notable of which is "Igeros Yechiel" which is chiddushim on all Torah subjects, including the Talmud, Shulchan Aruch, and the weekly Torah portions. He has also authored the works "Shevas Achim" and "Vzos Hamitzvah".

External links[]

• Nikolsburg website

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