YWN regrets to inform you of the passing of Rebbetzin Tzirel Benoliel, a”h, the wife of Hagaon Rav Chaim Benoliel shlit”a. She was 79. The Rebbetzin was a faithful partner in her husband’s Harbotzas Torah; together they raised a beautiful family.

Rebbetzin Benoliel was born in 1936 in Baranovitch, Poland. Her father, Rav Mendel Kaplan zt”l was a yungerman in the yeshiva of Reb Elchonon Wasserman HY”D, who was also his rebbi. Her mother, Rebbetzin Sarah Baila Kaplan, was a daughter of Rav Zvi Hirsh Gutman HY”D, the menahel of Reb Elchonon’s yeshiva.

Rav Mendel and his family escaped together with the Mirrer Yeshiva – where he had learned as a bachur – on their famous journey to Vilna, across Siberia, to Japan and finally to Shanghai. After the war the Kaplans settled in Chicago where Rav Mendel was a maggid shiur in Beis Medrash LeTorah. It was in Chicago that the shidduch was made between Rav Mendel’s oldest daughter and Reb Chaim, a native of Seattle of who was learning at Beis Medrash LeTorah.

After their marriage in 1959, the young couple settled in Brooklyn where Rav Chaim learned and taught at Yeshivas Bais Hatalmud. In 1968 Rav Chaim was appointed as the first rabbi of the Syrian community’s Congregation Bnei Yosef, which eventually moved to its current location on Ocean Parkway. In 1972 Rav Chaim established Yeshivat Mikdash Melech, the first Sephardic yeshiva gedolah in the Western Hemisphere. He and his brother-in-law, Rav Yitzchok Dovid Lopian, serve as the roshei yeshiva. A branch was opened in Yerushalayim in 1988; it is now located in the city’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.

Rebbetzin Benoliel was a full partner in her husband’s avodas hakodesh and merited to see children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren walking in her footsteps. Tehi Zichra Baruch.

The Levaya will be held today, Wednesday, at 2:15 PM at Congregation Bnei Yosef at 1616 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY. The Aron will be flown to Eretz Yisrael and Kevurah will be on Har Hamenuchos on Thursday at 3:00PM.

Boruch Dayan HaEmmes…

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)