Please be Mispallel for the Skverer Rebbe who is undergoing open-heart surgery this morning.

The Rebbe was flown to a hospital in Minnesota, where the surgery will take place.

The surgery is scheduled for 10:00AM ET.

Please say Tehillim for Dovid ben Trani.

The Skverer Rebbe has led his kehilla in New Square, NY since 1968.

New Square is the anglicized name of Skvira, a village in the Ukraine, where today’s Skverer Rebbe’s ancestors reigned. The New Square community in upstate New York was launched in 1957, when approximately 20 Skverer families moved from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, onto a 130-acre former farm in north Spring Valley, under the leadership of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Twersky, zt’l (1899–1968), late Skverer Rebbe, who arrived in the United States in 1950. Before the end of its first year, almost 40 families resided in New Square. In 1961, New Square became the first village in New York State to be governed by a religious group. Over the years, incremental annexations of bordering properties have increased its size. New Square’s population, according to the 2000 census, impressively increased by 77.5% between 1990 and 2000. Since then, the shtetl’s growth has maintained that increase.

New Square’s success motivated other chassidish groups to plan and build their own versions of a chassidish community outside the maelstrom of America’s large cities. Notably, Kasho, Nitra, Pupa, Satmar, Tash, and Vizhnitz have established insulated chassidish communities away from big metropolitan areas.

The community in New Square, Spring Valley, is populated almost exclusively by Skverer chassidim, who wish to maintain a chassidish lifestyle insulated from outside secular influences. The village is substantially self-sustained with its own businesses and shopping areas, primary and secondary schools, schools of higher education, as well as community, religious, and charitable organizations.

The village is essentially one community with a large synagogue serving its entire population.

Rabbi Dovid Twersky, the current Skverer Rebbe, was born in 1940. In 1958, he married Rebbetzin Chana, born in 1943, eldest daughter of Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, zt’l (1917–2012), Bnei Brak Vizhnitzer Rebbe. Their offspring are: Rabbi Aaron Menachem Mendel Twersky, born in 1962, married in 1980 to Rebbetzin Chava Reizel, daughter of Rabbi Mordechai Hager, Monsey Vizhnitzer Rebbe; Rabbi Yitzchok Itzik Twersky, born in 1963, married in 1981 to Rebbetzin Malka, daughter of Rabbi Yisroel Hager and granddaughter of the late Bnei Brak Vizhnitzer Rebbe; Rebbetzin Hinda Twersky, married in 1982 to Rabbi Avrohom Yehoshua Heshel Twersky, son of Rabbi Chai Yitzchok Twersky, Rachmestrivka Rebbe in Boro Park; Rebbetzin Tzipora, born in 1965, married in 1983 to Rabbi Eliezer Goldman, son of Rabbi Yaakov Goldman, scion of the Zhviler chassidish dynasty; Rebbetzin Tzima Mirel, born in 1969, married in 1987 to Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Hager, son of Rabbi Yisroel Hager, Vizhnitzer Rav in Monsey; son of Rabbi Mordechai Hager, Monsey Vizhnitzer Rebbe (the Monsey Vizhnitzer Rebbe is both a brother-in-law and an uncle by marriage to the Skverer Rebbe); Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, born in 1973, married in 1992 to Rebbetzin Chana Yenty, daughter of Rabbi Yehshaye Twersky, Chernobler Rebbe in Boro Park; and Rabbi Chaim Meir, born in 1981, married in 2000 to Rebbetzin Rochel Dinah, daughter of Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Halberstam, Kiviashder Rebbe; son of Rabbi Moshe Halberstam, zt’l (1924–2011), late Kiviashder Rebbe in Williamsburg.