Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz - Final Days and Funeral

Final Days and Funeral

In March 2011 Rabbi Lefkowitz's health declined and he began to suffer from various ailments. In June he relocated to the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem for a rest. He lost consciousness on Shabbat afternoon, 25 June, and was rushed to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where he died on Monday evening, 27 June (26 Sivan 5771). His Hebrew date of death was the 75th yahrtzeit of his father-in-law.

An estimated 100,000 people attended his funeral in Bnei Brak on Tuesday morning, 28 June, including Gedolei Yisrael, rabbis, rebbes, roshei yeshiva, and thousands of Rabbi Lefkowitz's students from throughout the decades. In the oppressive heat, chesed organizations handed out thousands of bottles of water, and hundreds of volunteers and 15 ambulances were on hand. Dozens of people fainted and some had to be taken to hospital.

The coffin was not taken inside the Ponovezh yeshiva, per Rabbi Lefkowitz's will. His grandson, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Korlansky, read out parts of his will, and his two sons, Rabbi Moshe Dovid Lefkowitz and Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Lefkowitz, delivered eulogies. The funeral then proceeded to the Bnei Brak cemetery, where Rabbi Lefkowitz was buried in the Ponovezh section.