YWN regrets to inform you of the petirah of Rav Yekusiel Yehuda Meisels zt”l, the longtime Rav in Seagate, who was niftar at Maimonides Medical Center on Sunday night at the age of 95.

Rav Yekusiel Yehuda was born in Wodzisław (Veitz) to the town’s rav, Rav Tzvi Hersh and Henya Zissel, the daughter Rav Chaim Yaakov Teitelbaum, the Av Bais Din of Limanowa  and the son-in-law of Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam of Bobov. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Rav Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum.

As a child, he studied in the yeshiva of his grandfather, Rav Dovid Dov Meislish, in Oehel.

In 1944, while studying in the yeshiva in Oehel, he was captured by the Nazis and sent to a ghetto. He managed to escape and return to his parents’ home in Wodzisław, from where he was taken along with the Jews of the town and family members to Auschwitz, where he was placed in the “children’s camp.” On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, he was taken with other boys his age for selection – all were sent to their deaths, but he miraculously survived.

In one incredible incident, the young Yekusiel Yehuda on Sukkos risked eating a Kezayis in a makeshift sukkah built by his father in the camp. He was caught, severely beaten, but again miraculously survived.

He survived the Holocaust along with his father, the Veitzene Rav zt”l, and emigrated to the U.S., settling in Crown Heights, where he married the daughter of Rav Binyamin Chaim Feldman.

After his marriage, he was appointed the Rav of Seagate, where he at first led a small Kehilla, “Kehal Yereim” (“Rabbi Meislish’s Shul”). Over the years, the Kehilla grew by leaps and bounds, with hundreds of families coming under the influence of the beloved Rav.

In recent years, his son Rav David Dov, a tremendous Talmid Chacham and Mechaber Seforim in his own right, serves in his stead.

A Mispallel of the Rov related to YWN that many years ago, the Rav suffered a terrible tragedy when his youngest child (a daughter named Raizel) fell out of a window after leaning on its screen, and was tragically niftar on Hoshanah Rabba. Despite the awful loss, the Rav displayed incredible Gevurah in his Shul on Shmini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, displaying zero Aveilus and was B’simcha the entire Yom Tov. Only after Simchas Torah ended, did he break down crying.

Among his children is his son-in-law, the Dushinsky Rebbe from Yerushalyim. He leaves behind a beautiful Mishpacha of Rabbonim and Admorim.

Levaya details will be published when they become available.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)