The following is via CHI:
With great sadness we report the passing of Rabbi Berel (Berke) Raskin OBM, the Crown Heights icon who owned a world renowned fish store on Kingston Ave. He passed away Shabbos, the 20th of Iyar 5779.
He was 84 years old.
Berel, one of four brothers, was born in Leningrad to his parents, Reb Aaron Leib Laine and Doba Raiza Raskin OBM, who had much mesiras nefesh for Yiddishkeit in Communist Russia.
His father passed away at the young age of 36, leaving the family to be sustained by his mother. She traveled with her family initially to Poland, then Austria, and finally Paris.
From there, Mrs. Raskin wrote to the Frierdiker Rebbe, asking whether they should seek entry to Israel or to America. The Rebbe advised them to travel to America, and in 1953 they arrived in New York.
When Berel looked to start a business, he soon decided on opening a fish store, with the Rebbe’s encouragement. He rented the store on Kingston Avenue, where the business is run from until today.
He is survived by his wife Esther Raskin, and his children Aaron Leib Raskin (Crown Heights), Yossi Raskin (Crown Heights), Shloime Raskin (Crown Heights), Brocha Richler (Los Angeles, CA), Bassie Komar (Crown Heights), Chanie Greene (Rochester, MN), Doba Rimler (Crown Heights) and Shaina Moss (Israel), and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He is also survived by his brothers Michel Raskin (Crown Heights), Dovid Laine (Crown Heights), and Benzion Raskin (Crown Heights.
The Levaya will take place Sunday, leaving Shomrei Hadas in Boro Park at 12:30 pm and passing by 770 at 1:30 pm.
Boruch Dayan Hoemes
(Source: crownheights.info)
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3 Responses
bde. special person.
btw just wondering ” world renowned fish store” what does it mean?
Eli….it was known throughout the world as the only place where you could get almost 2 dozen different types of herring and probably the best (non-Ungarishe) gefilte fish in the world.
So sorry to read about Mr. Raskin’s passing. He was an exceptional person. Always warm and friendly, giving his customers personal attention. Even if you didn’t shop at his store, on Shabbos after davening in 770 he had a smile and a kibbitz for you. His hachnosas orchim was legendary. If anything people ran to his store not from his store. And Raskin’s fish store run by his equally excellent children is world-renowned because of his line of frozen gefilte fish shipped anywhere and his scouring the globe for kosher specialty fish products such as cod liver. Mr. Raskin and his fish store were profiled and photographed in that book about the Jews of New York because of his great personality and hadras ponim. Reb Berke’s passing leaves a void and his memory will always bring a smile.