With the petirah on erev Shabbos Pinchos of HaRav
Yosef Halpern, affectionately known as Reb Yossel, the
chareidi kehilla of Manchester lost one of its
founding members and most extraordinary personalities.
Rav Yosef Halpern was born 94 years ago into an illustrious
family of Tchortkover chassidim. His father, Rabbi
Shmuel Halpern zt"l, was a direct descendant of the
Seder Hadoros and traced his lineage to the Maharshal and
later became the first rov of Zichron Meir in Bnei Brak.
At the age of four he was zoche to accompany his
father and travel to Tchortkov on his first of many trips.
Parnosso was very difficult in his father's household,
and Rav Yosef often told the story how, as a young child, he
tried to earn a few pennies by selling Yiddishe newspapers
reporting on the then-ongoing Beilis trial.
The family escaped the troubles of Galicia and settled in
Leipzig, Berlin and then Amsterdam where his father became
rov of the shul there. Rav Yosef received semichah
from the HaRav Yehuda Leib Fein, the rav of Slonim, who
was then on a visit to Amsterdam.
He was very close to Reb Meir Schapiro of Lublin zt"l
and spent one Succos as his guest when Reb Meir was still
rov in Pietrikov. Reb Meir held him in such esteem, that on
one occasion he asked R' Yosef, who was still a bochur,
to test the bochurim for their entrance exam into
his illustrious Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin!
In the late 1920's Rav Yosef travelled to the Middle East to
purchase antique seforim and visited Turkey, Cairo and
Eretz Yisroel. He had the zechus to visit the great
Sephardic mekubol Chacham Eliphandri in Yerushalayim
who was then nearly 120 years old.
When relating an episode of either the Tchortkover Rebbe, the
Husiatiner Rebbe, the Bohusher Rebbe, the Chazon Ish or any
other of the pre and postwar gedolim that he had the
zechus to encounter, he would display much awe and yiras
hakovod.
In '31 he married Frieda, the youngest daughter of Reb
Eliezer Adler zt"l, one of the founders of Gateshead's
kehilla. They moved to Manchester in 1934, where he
became the first shochet of the then-fledgling
Machzikei Hadas Kehilla.
For nearly seven decades they ran a household where
hospitality and chesed were the dominant features,
even in the times when their own income was meager.
Being a staunch chossid of Rabbi Yisroel of Tchortkov
zt"l, all his life was focused on following his
Rebbe's legacy. In chinuch habonim especially, he set
an example for his own children and involved himself in being
building mosdos Torah for the community. As one of the
founders of the Machazikei Hadas Kehilla, he was instrumental
in bringing over Rav Feldman, reorganizing the shechita,
and building the mikveh and the shul. He
was also one of the founders of Jewish Day School which was
the first orthodox school in Manchester and the first school
to get official recognition and later state aid. Later he
also helped to found the Jewish High School.
He was one of the main Aguda activists who, in the dark war
years, toiled day and night trying to bring over refugees
from war-torn Europe. With many refugees arriving, Rav
Yosef's house at 69 Wellington St. became both a bayis
posuach lirvocho and a beis vaad lechachomim. When
the Aguda building was destroyed by a Nazi air raid, he
bought a new Aguda house at 35a Northumberland Street.
Despite all his askonus he found time to learn, and
always had a fiery spark when retelling a vort or an
interesting source for an old minhag.
Rav Yosef's own legacy was his being medakdek bemitzvos
and a true example of al titosh toras imecho. His
hachonos and dveikus for tekias shofar
for the six decades he was a baal tokea in
Machazikei Hadas, were legendary.
Hoshanna Raboh, the yahrtzeit of the Alter Tchortkover
Rebbe, was the day his children, einiklech and many
others would look forward to. Rav Yosef would sit in the
Succah keep all present spellbound by recounting stories of
the Tchortkover and Ruzhiner Rebbes.
He was for many years a neighbor of the late Manchester Rosh
Hayeshiva zt"l with whom he was very close and with
whom he would exchange brochos every erev Yom
Kippur.
His place of business was a mokom Torah and
tefilla, where he always sat surrounded by his
numerous seforim.
As he got older and his health started to decline, everyone
was in awe about his tenacity not to miss tefilla
betzibbur. Even in his last few weeks, he forced himself
to eat a kezayis challah for seudas Shabbos,
and on motzei Shabbos for melave malka. On
a recent occasion when asked why he was zoche to
arichas yomim he answered that he never missed washing
for seuda shelishis and melave malka all his
life, since his bar mitzvah.
Hundreds of people came to pay respect to the niftar
at the levaya on Sunday afternoon and, according
to his expressed wishes, no hespedim were said.
May he be a melitz yosher for his devoted wife who
stood beside him all those years, his children,
grandchildren, great and great-great-grandchildren, who are
all following the path along which he led them.
