Hillel Pewsner

Rabbi Hillel Pewsner was a Chabad posek who served as a leader of the Chabad Hasidim in France for over 55 years. He also served as Av Beit Din of the Lubavitch committee in France. He founded the first Jewish Talmudic school in Paris since the conclusion of World War II.

Early life Pewsner was born in Minsk during the Soviet period, in what is now Belarus. He was the eldest son of Rabbi Avraham Baruch Pewsner and his wife Alte.

Studies and early adulthood Pewsner studied in the meantime at the Tomchei Tmimim, and much of his youth was spent studying Torah in underground Chabad yeshivas. Due to crackdowns on organized religion by the Soviet authority, the students often had to travel from city to city to stay in class. He began studying in Berdychiv with his brother Shalom Dov Ber, who later died in the Holocaust. He then went to Zhytomyr and later Voronezh. During World War II he fled with many members of Chabad to Samarkand. At the end of the war, he went to Bensheim and then to a DP camp in Pocking. During his time in Germany, he studied at Yeshiva that was opened by Rabbi Avraham Eliyahu Plotkin.

In the 1980s, following a growth in the Lubavitcher community in France, a rabbinate was formed and Pewsner was appointed the Av Beit Din. He also observed Mikveh in Paris, and following the collapse of the Iron Curtain, he travelled to CIS countries to build Mikvehs for the Jewish population.

In 2000, he became one of the co-founders of the Rabbinical Center of Europe.

Sinai Education Institute In 1965, Pewsner established the Sinai educational center with the aim of providing a Jewish education to Jewish children in Paris. It became one of the largest Jewish schools in the city, and grew to 4 different buildings, one of which was named "Beis Hillel" following his death. He presided over thousands of students from K-12 for decades during his tenure as director of the school system.

Death and family Pewsner died Wednesday 3 October 2008 from Pneumonia. Many prominent rabbis, including , Joseph Sitruk, and David Messas spoke at his funeral.

Family His descendants include:

His son, Rabbi Avraham Baruch Pewsner, rabbi of Chabad in Paris His son Menachem Mendel Pewsner, shluchim in Geneva College His son, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, director of the Sinai Institute in paris His son-in-law, Rabbi Yechiel Menachem Mendel Kalmenson, Rosh yeshiva of Tmimim in Brunoy His son-in-law, Rabbi Yechezkel Naparstek, shluchim in Paris His son-in-law, Rabbi Chaim Slonim, shluchim in Dijon