obituaries

A Hero Of Judaism

Louis Finkelman
Special to the Jewish News

R

abbi Moshe Greenberg, the
Soviet rabbi imprisoned 61/2
years in Joseph Stalin's Siberian
gulags who later served as a Chabad rabbi
in Israel, died in Bnei Brak on June 18,
2013, at age 86.
Local mourners include his son, Rabbi
Schneor Greenberg of the Chabad Jewish
Center of Commerce/Walled Lake.
In Moldava, where Moshe Greenberg
was born, the authorities strictly enforced
laws against teaching religion to children.
When his father studied Torah with him,
this was a dangerous, subversive activity.
This began his life of complete mesirut
nefesh (self sacrifice). In 1941, after the
family ran away from the Nazis, his
father sent him to a yeshivah in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, at the age of 14. There he
became a fervent follower of the Chabad-
Lubavitch Chasidic movement.
At age 20, Rabbi Greenberg joined a
group that tried to escape to Romania
from the Soviet Union. Authorities caught
the group, and the judge sentenced them
to a gulag in Siberia for 25 years. In the
prison camp, Rabbi Greenberg was deter-
mined not to work on Shabbat and not to
eat non-kosher food. He lived on bread,
water and some herring, but would not
eat the meat.
Prisoners who refused to work got
solitary confinement for five days. For
the first two years, Rabbi Greenberg
spent nearly all his time in solitary, with
minimal food. After two years, when he
became sick enough, he got hospital care.
The Jewish doctor who nursed him back
to health arranged for him to go out on
Saturdays, and for the authorities to toler-
ate his not actually doing any work.
Years later, one of his sons asked him

SHIRLEY GREEN, 84,

of Longboat Key, Fla.,
died June 30, 2013.
She is survived by her
husband of 63 years,
Fred Green; son, Larry
Green of Clarkston;
daughters and sons-
Green
in-law, Caryn Green-
Acker and Jerry Acker
of Huntington Woods, Susan Green of
Northville, Jennifer Green-Feinberg and
William Feinberg of Denver, Colo., and
Jodi Green-Brin and Michael Brin of
Mequon, Wis.; grandchildren, Jordan and
Lauren Acker, Lindsay Acker, Zachary
Brin, Jacob Brin, Joshua Brin, Noah

38 July 4 • 2013

JN

how he justified turning down food when before the funeral, he succeeded in finally
he was in danger of starvation and trying
getting a copy of the file. During the week
to keep Shabbat when he was ordered
of shivah, the family had time to read it
to work by murderous rulers. After all,
and they discovered that these documents
Jewish law demands that one must do
corroborated the legend. Rabbi Greenberg
everything to protect one's life from
had refused to betray the names of the
danger. He replied that when he got his
other members of the group that tried to
25-year sentence, he felt sure
escape from the Soviet
Union.
that he would not make it out
alive "so better to die with keep-
Rabbi Schneor
ing the Jewish law:'
Greenberg of
During the years in Siberia,
Commerce Township
Rabbi Greenberg managed to
remembers that his
hand-copy a printed machzor
father did not speak
much of his painful
(High Holiday prayer book)
belonging to a Jewish engineer,
experience in Siberia.
who risked himself to smuggle
"He was always happy,
it in. After this clandestine tran-
not dwelling on the past
Rabbi M oshe Greenberg
scription, he could recite the
but looking at the posi-
traditional prayers for himself
tive present:'
The family often
and for other prisoners on Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
heard these stories from other people.
Schneor remembers the tone of his
A New Start In Israel
childhood home:
When Stalin died, Rabbi Greenberg was
"We are a big family and lived in an
released. He married Devorah Chazan,
apartment with not too much room:' he
said. "I never had the feeling of missing
who came from a family that resisted
Soviet pressure to abandon Jewish prac-
something. My father was barely ever
tice. For years, her parents refused to let
home, and yet he set the tone of the fam-
ily.
their children go to school on Saturdays.
When the government threatened to
"He worked during the day as a dia-
remove the children from their parents'
mond polisher and went out at night to
custody, the Chazan children began
do mitzvah campaigns, initiated by the
attending school on Saturdays, but they
Lubavitcher Rebbe, such as putting up
did not write.
mezuzot and making kitchens kosher. He
Rabbi Moshe and Devorah Greenberg
made sure to take us along to be a part
then later managed to move to Israel,
of this. We were the luckiest because we
where he became a director of Chabad
were able to do for others:'
Lubavitch operations in Bnei Brak.
Worldwide Emissaries
After the fall of the Soviet Union and
it became possible to open old KGB
Schneor, like most of his 16 brothers
secret police files, his son-in-law, Rabbi
and sisters, went out as shlichim, emis-
Avraham Wolf, the Chabad rabbi of
saries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi
Odessa, tried with no success to get the
Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Now,
files on his father-in-law. Two hours
Greenberg family rabbis direct Chabad

Feinberg and Emily Feinberg; sister and
brother-in-law, Marilyn and Murray
Cooper. Mrs. Green is also survived by
her poodle, Lola.
She was the devoted daughter of the
late George and the late Frieda Zetrin.
Interment was at Machpelah Cemetery.
Contributions may be made to Jewish
Hospice & Chaplaincy Network, 6555 W.
Maple, West Bloomfield, MI 48322, www.
jewishhospice.org; or a charity of one's
choice. Arrangements by Ira Kaufman
Chapel.

ARON GROSS, 84, of Oak Park, died June

28, 2013.
Mr. Gross was the only surviving member

Obituaries

of his family from the
Holocaust.
He is survived by his
sons and daughter-in-law,
Benjamin Gross of West
Bloomfield, Isaak and
Marina Gross of West
Bloomfield; grandchildren, Debra Gross,
Michelle Gross, Johnathan Gross, Phillip
Gross, Andrew Gross.
Mr. Gross was the beloved husband for 49
years of the late Lena Gross.
Contributions may be made to a char-
ity of one's choice. Interment was held
at Beth Abraham Cemetery in Ferndale.
Arrangements by Hebrew Memorial Chapel.

centers across the world, from Anchorage
to Shanghai, from Odessa in Ukraine to
Hanover in Germany.
Schneor describes his method of
operation, the typical emissary's method:
"We went somewhere where there was
no Jewish community and just started
to build one:' As each son declared his
intention to go off as a shaliach (emis-
sary), Schneor recalls, his father greeted
the decision with a smile although it
would cost him the chance to see his
grandchildren. "He never asked us to
do this. He just set an example that we
wanted to follow:'
As Schneor recalls, his father "never
complained. He had no time to be sick:'
He would say, "You can sleep later when
you get home. Right now, you need to be
busy."
Some years ago, Rabbi Moshe
Greenberg visited Commerce Township,
Mich., for the celebrations after another
son's wedding. He noticed that his
daughter-in-law, Estie, seemed stressed
with presenting the celebration, hosting
her guests and keeping track of her own
growing family, and reassured her: "The
first 70 years are difficult. After that it
gets easier:'
Rabbi Moshe Greenberg leaves his
widow, Devorah, their 17 children, and
many grandchildren and great-grandchil-
dren. The local bereaved family consists
of Rabbi Schneor Greenberg, his wife,
Estie; and their children Mussie, Mendel,
Levi, Leibel, Chani, Ari, Bluma and
Shmulik.
Contributions in memory of Rabbi
Moshe Greenberg may be sent to Chabad
Jewish Center of Commerce/Walled
Lake, 4718 Half Penny Court, Commerce,
MI 48382, (248) 363-3644, www.
JewishCommerce.org.

❑

IRENE ISAACS, 88, of
West Bloomfield, died
June 28, 2013.
She is survived by
her daughters and sons-
in-law, Fay and Stuart
Stone, Carol Sher and
Eric Winter, and Debra
Isaacs
and David Rosenberg;
grandchildren, Robert Stone and his fian-
cee, Victoria Vittori, Jeffrey Stone, Shane
and Ann Sher, and Drew Rosenberg;
brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Emanuel
and Lila Isaacs. Mrs. Isaacs is also survived
by her nieces, who were more like daugh-
ters to her, Fran and Philip Wolok, and
Sandra and Sidney Indig, as well as many