Rebbetzin Zipa Lopian a”h was a woman as unexpected as her laugh. Eminently down to earth, yet utterly idealistic, she dispensed wisdom and friendship to the thousands who crossed the threshold of “number 30,” the home in Gateshead, England where she lived with her husband Rav Leib Lopian, rosh yeshivah of Gateshead Yeshivah and one of the foremost European gedolim of the previous generation
A pristine white dress hangs in the wardrobe; a frothy veil wrapped in white muslin lies on the night table. A knock on the door. Leah Levy Zipa’s mother enters her bedroom and sits next to her on the bed. She speaks to her eldest daughter in rich Yiddish. “Tomorrow you are going to the chupah ” she says. “You must not cry as you circle your chassan lest the world think you are sad or scared to marry a ben Torah. You must walk with joy and dignity and as always make a Kiddush Hashem.”
Make a Kiddush Hashem. The theme of Zipa Lopian’s life. A goal that infused meaning into casual conversations trips to the store and standing erect and proud under the chuppah. Eyes trained on this goal she could unleash the power of her personality to fall in love with life again and again.
The small seaside town of Portsmouth England where Zipa was born in 1916 was no bastion of English Jewry. Her parents Reb Chaim Moshe and Leah Levy were the only Torah-observant residents. Reb Chaim Moshe owned a factory there producing rubber blocks that were the forerunners of Lego.
Zipa grew up without Jewish schools or Jewish friends. Education however there was in abundance. Every morning Reb Chaim Moshe learned with the children before he left for work; in the evening he tested them on what they had learned. Reb Chaim Moshe also paid for rebbis from London to live with the family so his sons would be educated.
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