Yekutiel Halberstam; Leader of Klausenburger Hasidic Sect

Rabbi Yekutiel Halberstam, leader of the Klausenburger Hasidic sect, has died at age 90, a follower said Sunday.

Halberstam, born to a rabbinical dynasty in Cluj in present-day Romania--known as Klausenburg at the time--led a Hasidic sect with thousands of followers in Israel and the United States.

He was in the international limelight two years ago when Romanian construction workers unearthed a box of silver religious objects that Halberstam had buried for safety during World War II. The treasure was restored to him.

Halberstam lost a wife and 11 children during the Holocaust.

After the war, he immigrated to Brooklyn, where he began to re-establish the Klausenburger sect.

In 1962, he emigrated to Israel with his followers, where he established Kiryat Zanz, one of the first all-Hasidic communities to be built in Israel. He died Friday night in that settlement near the coastal town of Netanya.

Halberstam started a new family there and established Netanya’s Laniado hospital.

He is survived by his second wife, two sons and five daughters. One of his sons, Rabbi Zvi Elimelekh Halberstam, is the rabbi of Kiryat Zanz and is expected to be named his successor.

A week ago, another prominent Hasidic rabbi, Menachem Schneerson, died in the United States at the age of 92.

Hasidism, founded in Poland 300 years ago, combines strict adherence to Jewish law with a joyful belief in mysticism and the eternal soul.