He grew up in the house of his father, the Admur, and during the Holocaust he wandered from place to place until he ended up in Tomchei T’mimim. He was a rebbi for many years in Kfar Chabad. * R’ Avrohom Roitblatt a”h.
R’ Avrohom Roitblatt a”h with his nephew, the Bobover Rebbe
PRINCE OF THE HOUSE OF SHEDLITZ
R’ Avrohom Roitblatt was born in 5687/1927 in Shedlitz, Poland. His father was the Admur, Rabbi Yehoshua Asher of Shedlitz zt”l. R’ Avrohom grew up under the watchful care of his father, but alas, it was not for long.
DIFFICULT EXILE
There was excitement in the Roitblatt home in the summer of 5699. Young Avrohom would soon become bar mitzva and t’fillin were already ordered. But the plans were ruined when World War II began in Elul. The house filled with refugees who had fled the Nazis.
“Wherever the Germans went, the Jews fled. Numerous refugees stayed in our house and courtyard, hoping for quieter days. One of my sisters worked hard to help them, heating water and giving people drinks.
“I remember one day when my father stood with his face to the wall, deep in thought. Suddenly, the house shook from a bomb that had fallen not far away. My sister was frightened. She went over to my father and said, ‘Tatte, I can’t take it anymore.’ My father turned around and said, ‘Go my daughter. Continue reviving people and in this merit, you will have sons who are Torah scholars.’ She did as he said.”
In fact, all the sons of this sister grew up and became distinguished people; one of them is the current Bobover Rebbe, R’ Mordechai Dovid Unger.
When the Germans came to the outskirts of Shedlitz, his father said they should flee. He himself fled with his family to the town of Simiatitz, where the Red army had control. Shortly thereafter, the Jewish refugees in the area were suspected of being spies and were exiled by the Soviets to a labor camp in Siberia.
“They sent us in trains to the camp which was in the frozen forests. It sometimes reached 37 below zero. Only about 400 grams of bread were given to each person every day. This bread was very doughy. Apparently, someone in the bakery stole some of the ingredients. I would put the dough into warm water with salt and imagine that it was the tastiest soup in the world.”
Time passed and Pesach was approaching. His father began worrying about matzos. He somehow managed to send a letter to a relative, who miraculously was able to send them a package of matzos, which was divided among the Jews in the camp.
Aside from the small quantity of matzos, there was an urgent need to obtain additional food for the eight days of Pesach. One of the Jews in the camp, who had a down blanket, was able to exchange it for a sack of potatoes, which had become a rare commodity. This sack helped the Jews manage through Pesach.
Avrohom spent the war years in the Siberian camp. In the winter of 5705, a few months before the end of the war, they were released. The Roitblatt family headed for Turkmenistan.
Just at this time, when the war was over and it seemed that the hard times were behind them, the tzaros began. His father died on the way to Turkmenistan on 15 Kislev 5705. Just four days later, his mother died on 19 Kislev. The Roitblatt children were suddenly bereft of both their parents.
“THERE IS A YESHIVA IN SAMARKAND”
The young orphans reached Turkmenistan, where they lived in on a kolkhoz (collective farm), cut off from the world. They had no idea how they would continue living in this forsaken place, especially when it came to observing Torah and mitzvos.
A woman lived on the kolkhoz, who occasionally traveled to Samarkand in nearby Uzbekistan in order to sell fabric. That is how she supported herself. When she saw Avrohom, a young boy, she wondered, “Why is a boy your age here? In Samarkand there is a yeshiva, go there!”
Avrohom went to Samarkand, followed by some of his brothers and sisters.
“At the train station in Samarkand, a Karlin Stoliner Chassid met me. He brought me to the Lubavitcher Chassidim who lived in the city. The first Lubavitcher I met was R’ Yisroel Leibov. He took care of me. After a short while, I began learning in the yeshiva. At first, I learned by R’ Eliyahu Chaim Roitblatt (he eventually married one of my sisters and left Russia under her name; since then, he kept the name Roitblatt). I slowly made progress and was promoted from class to class. I learned by R’ Michoel Teitelbaum, by R’ Moshe Robinson, and by R’ Yehoshua Korf. For a few weeks I also learned by R’ Avrohom Eliyahu Plotkin.”
R’ Avrohom did not stay in Samarkand for long, as the great flight of Lubavitcher Chassidim from Russia under forged Polish passports had begun. He joined them and left the Soviet Union via Lvov. After a short stay in Poland, he reached the DP camp in Poking, Germany, where he learned in the Tomchei T’mimim that opened there.
He told about a special moment from those days:
“One day, a copy of the Rebbe Rayatz’s Memoirs came our way. A friend and I went up to the roof and hid there so nobody would bother us. We avidly read the book from cover to cover.”
R’ Avrohom then moved with a group of bachurim to France, where they learned in Brunoy. In 5713 he moved to Eretz Yisroel and settled in Kfar Chabad where his sister, Devorah Leah Kievman, already lived. She was among the first settlers in Kfar Chabad. He married and then began teaching in Kfar Chabad.
A HIDDEN HAND PULLED ME
He went to the Rebbe many years later, for Tishrei 5734. He described this trip:
“The moment I merited seeing the Rebbe was a most exciting moment. The Rebbe looked to me like a great military leader and it greatly impressed me. The simcha that the Rebbe inspired in the crowd won me over completely.”
One day, he tried to squeeze his way through in order to get closer to the Rebbe during the davening. He tried and tried but made no progress. He had come from Eretz Yisroel and he longed to see the Rebbe from up close and was unable to. As he despaired, he noticed a childhood friend in the distance, the mashpia R’ Pinchas Korf, standing near the Rebbe. But R’ Avrohom did not grow envious: “I remember that whenever we walked in the street, he would review chapters of Tanya by heart. I thought, he deserves to be close to the Rebbe.” That was R’ Avrohom’s ayin tov.
The next day, he noticed R’ Korf once again, standing very close to the Rebbe. R’ Avrohom found himself reaching his friend. “I felt as though a hidden hand was paving a way for me in the crowd, because I suddenly found myself very close to the Rebbe. I was right next to my friend, R’ Pinye. I thought, I see that the Rebbe sensed my strong desire and he was the one who enabled me to come close to him.”
***
R’ Avrohom was a melamed in Kfar Chabad for decades. All his life he was a role model of a Chassid. He was always involved in learning or doing a mitzva, chesed or mivtzaim. We never saw him idle. When he reached old age, he retired and began learning for hours every day with his friends in the Beis Menachem shul.
He passed away on Erev Shabbos Ki Sisa, 19 Adar, at the age of 86. He is survived by his wife and children who go in the way of Torah and Chassidus.