News

Belzer Rebbe
Returns To Lvov

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Lvov, Ukraine (JTA) — Half
a century after his father
fled Nazi-occupied Europe
and brought the Belzer
Chasidic dynasty to
Jerusalem, Rabbi Issachar
Dov Rokeach, the present-
day Belzer rebbe, returned
to Lvov with 350 of his
followers.
Greeted at the airport by a
Ukrainian military mar-
ching band playing "Shalom
Aleichem," the rebbe and
his entourage spent the day
meeting with the local Jew-
ish community in Lvov, a
city that before the war had
a large Belzer population.
Until World War II, Belz
was one of the largest and
most influential Chasidic
groups in Galicia and all of
Eastern Europe. The dynas-
ty founded at the beginning
of the 19th century by Rabbi
Sholem Rokeach of Belz
expanded rapidly over the
next century.
At the outbreak of World
War II, Belz and Lvov fell
under Soviet rule as a result
of Poland's partition bet-
ween Nazi Germany and the
Soviet Union.
In 1941, both cities were
conquered by the invading
German army and occupied
by the Nazis for four years.
The two cities were even-
tually reconquered by the
Red Army and formally
annexed to Ukraine after
the war by the Soviet dic-
tator Joseph Stalin.
Though the Belzer rebbe
was able to escape to
Jerusalem, almost the entire
Jewish population of the re-
gion was killed during the
war.
The Jewish population of
Lvov, which comprised 30
percent of the city before the
war, was reduced to a few
thousand.
After the war, the Belzer
dynasty rebuilt itself in
Israel. Today, there are ap-
proximately 25,000 Belzer
Hasidim around the world,
with major centers in
Jerusalem, Brooklyn,
Vienna and Antwerp.
The present rebbe was
born after the war and
assumed leadership of the
group in 1967, when he was
18 years old.
The main purpose of the
rebbe's trip this month was
to visit the graves of his
relatives and other Jewish
tzadikim to invite them
symbolically to the upcom-
ing wedding of his only

child, Aaron Mordechai
Rokeach.
The wedding, scheduled
for Aug. 3, will bring
together the Belzer dynasty
and the Makever dynasty of
Kfar Ata in Israel by the
marriage of the children of
the two rebbes.
Since the collapse of Soviet
rule, the Jewish community
of Lvov, renamed Lviv by
the Ukrainians, has slowly
been rebuilding.
Under Communist rule,
every synagogue in the city
was closed and all Jewish
community property con-
fiscated.
For the past three years,
Rabbi Avraham Rosenthal,
an Israeli-born member of
the Karliner-Stolin Chasidic
movement, has been the
head of the religious com-
munity.
One synagogue, which had
been used as a warehouse for
four decades, was returned
to the Jewish community by
the local government.
Restored and rebuilt, the
building again houses an ac-
tive synagogue and yeshiva.
Despite a small Jewish
population of less than
10,000, the Lvov community
is planning to open a Jewish
day school in September,
and its yeshiva has earned
itself the reputation of being
one of the best in the former
Soviet Union.

Israel Unveils
Drone Tank

Tel Aviv (JTA) — The Israeli
army has unveiled a a new
remote-controlled drone
tank that operates without a
driver or crew.
The Israeli Defense Force's
Ordnance and Equipment
Corps showed off the new
tank, named "Peleh," or
"miracle" in Hebrew, to
military correspondents this
week.
The tank is currently be-
ing tested and used in train-
ing.
The army also demon-
strated transportation
vehicles which have been
reinforced with special pro-
tective armor to counter the
danger of roadside bombs
and missiles.
Correspondents watched
as a roadside bomb was
detonated near one of the
newly designed personnel
carriers. None of the soldiers
aboard was harmed.

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