A Kingdom Rebuilt: How Rav Aharon Rokeach brought postwar Belz back to life

Rav Ahrele Belzer accepted the loss of his family during the Holocaust with the equanimity of his Biblical namesake, Vayidom Aharon. But he refused to allow his personal devastation to spell the end of the Belzer dynasty. How did a man so removed from worldly pleasure possess the keen insight to intuit the needs of a generation? How did this otherworldly rebbe innovate and rebuild Belz in postwar Israel? And how did he institute forward-thinking measures that only enhanced and bolstered the legacy of the past?

“There are those who merit the World to Come with just one act: this is your opportunity! Assist in the rescue of the Belzer Rav!”

The ancient Sephardic community of Halab (Aleppo) was abuzz on a cool February day in 1944. Fathers exited the K’nees (shul) donned in finery as they hurried along with their children, hoping to merit a glimpse of the great tzaddik passing through the city’s rail junction. He would have no choice but to stop here: A mere 30 miles from the border of British-controlled Palestine, all foreign aliens arriving from Nazi-occupied territory were disembarked, rigorously searched, and interrogated by British security services. A war was raging, and anyone could be an enemy spy or operative.

According to the train’s manifest, the guest in question was one “Rabbi Twersky” who was accompanied on his journey by “Rabbi Pecsenik.” They were among a refugee group that had arrived from Budapest via Bucharest and Istanbul.

An agent approached and the questioning began, but the rabbi hardly responded. The more aggressive the interrogation, the less cooperative the rabbi became. Finally, the agent had enough and decided that the rabbi and his assistant would need to be taken into custody, until additional background information about him could be established.