Chaim Zanvl Abramovitz ^People

His father died when Chaim was 3 years old and he grew up in the family of the rabbi from Stefänesti. Here he befriended the future rabbi of Skuleny. He was educated at the Tsirelson yeshiva in Chisinãu, in Moldova and was ordained a rabbi by Rabbi Yehuda Leib Tsirelson (1959-1941). He served as a rabbi in various towns in Bessarabia region of Romania (now Moldova), particularly in Rezina (also known as Rezina-Târg). During the Holocaust he was deported toTransnistria, to the Rybnitza ghetto. After WW2 he choose to stay in Rybnitza, who became part of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic of USSR (now in Transnistria region of Moldova). He con- ducted a strict religious life and was regarded as a holy man, a pure saint, who dedi- cated his life to observing the mitzvoth and maintaining Jewish education for children even during the anti-religious and anti-Jewish persecutions of the Stalinist era. He gained fame as a miracle worker among the Jewish and non-Jewish population.He received thousands of visitors annually, mostly from among the Jews of Moldova and Ukraine. He also served as a mohel, shochet and hazzan (cantor). He im- migrated to Israel in 1970living for a number of years in Kiryat Mattersdorfneighbor- hood in Jerusalem. He moved to United States, where helived in Miami, Los Angeles, Brooklyn and finaly in Money, NY. He founded two Rybnitza synagogues, in Money and in Borough Park, Brooklyn. His tomb in the Vizhnitzer cemetery serves as a pil- grimage site for tens of thousands of devout Jews.