R’ Yisrael Tzvi Yosef (Benny) Weisz, Z”L, an avreich from Lakewood, was found in the rubble of the Champlain Towers on erev Shabbos. His wife Malki A”H was identified on Shabbos afternoon.

Plans are being formulated to have both Niftarim flown to Lakewood for a Levaya on Sunday. Details will be published when available.

The Weisz couple had traveled to Florida that fateful Thursday to spend Shabbos with Malki’s father, Chaim Rosenberg, z’l, who had purchased a condo in Champlain Towers only last month. His body was found on Thursday.

Benny, 32, who grew up in Vienna, and his wife Malki, 27, from New York, settled in Arzei HaBirah in Yerushalayim after their marriage and moved to Lakewood at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. Sadly, he and his wife did not have children.

“Benny was on one hand very gifted, I think he bordered on genius, but on the other hand he was very humble and part of the chevrah,” one of Benny’s friends in Israel told Kikar Shabbat. “He never tried to show that he knew more than others but his accomplishments in limmud Torah was way above the usual.”

“Benny was very connected to the Rosh Yeshivah HaGaon HaRav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi and attended his shiurim on Kodshim. Even after he moved to the States, he would get up in the middle of the night to hear HaRav Ezrachi’s shiur, which he delivered via teleconference during the pandemic.”

“Benny also felt connected to many tzaddikim and learned many sifrei Chassidus and incorporated what he learned into his life. He used to give shiurim on the parsha from his house and would say words of emunah and chizzuk.”

A friend of Benny’s from the US told Kikar: “What especially set Benny apart was his ben adam l’chaveiro. He knew how to really give to others. One of his neighbors told me that he once told Benny a vort on the parsha, and from then on, every year on that parsha he would thank him for the vort and tell him how he remembered it when he was reviewing the parsha.”

Yehi Zichram Baruch.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)