Witness to the Revival: A Talk with Reb Itche Duvid Rezmowitz

In every chassidishe hoif it’s the eyes of the gabbai that have seen it all. Privy to the secrets of the inner sanctum the holy will of its occupant the devotion its adherents he carries their burdens shares their joys and sorrows.

Reb Itche Duvid Rezmowitz was born into the Vizhnitz Chassidus and has been breathing its air for decades — and for several years some of the most historic in the history of Chassidus he served as in the pivotal position of gabbai..

He was gabbai to the Rebbe the great Imrei Chaim — Rav Chaim Meir Hager — who made it his life’s work to teach his chassidim what Chassidus means a legacy from his holy fathers. In a way his task was harder than that of his predecessors. They had to share the meaning and depth of Kossov and Vizhnitz with chassidishe Yidden the devout Jews of the towns and villages near peaceful Grosswardein. Reb Chaim Meir was charged with the mandate of reviving dry bones of filling the deafening stillness that followed the great destruction with song once again. 

Itche Duvid Rezmowitz had spent his best days in the Vizhnitzer court in Romania where Shabbos brought peace and tranquility to throngs of warm-hearted Yidden from surrounding towns that would come find shelter in the Rebbe’s presence. It was a place where Yom Tov meant just that: good days days when the simplest Yidden along with the most illustrious would come taste joy in the Rebbe’s court. The sights and sounds of the Vizhnitzer court seeped into the very essence of teenaged Itche Duvid Vizhnitz defining him as a Vizhnitzer chassid.