Yisroel Avrohom Portugal

Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom Portugal (or Israel Abraham Portugal) (June 2, 1923 April 1, 2019) son of Rabbi Eliezer Zusia, was the Rebbe (Grand Rabbi) of Skulen in Brooklyn, New York. He was the last Holocaust era Rebbe to lead a Hasidic dynasty.

Early years, education, and World War II Rabbi Portugal was born June 2, 1923, to Eliezer Zusia and his first wife Sheina Rachel in Sculeni, Moldova, a town near the Romanian border. In his youth, he studied in Vizhnitz under the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Eliezer Hager. Before World War II began, Portugal and his father left their hometown of Sculeni in Moldova (the town from which derives the name of the Hasidic dynasty that they led) and went to Chernowitz in Ukraine, where they spent the Second World War. successfully prevailed on Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations secretary general, to intervene, and the Portugals were freed. Rabbi Meir Portugal – second son of Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom Portugal, Skulener Rebbe of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Rabbi Ephraim Chayyim Yehuda Portugal, Skulener Rebbe Shlit"a in Monsey, New York – third son of Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom Portugal. Rabbi Zvi Noach Portugal, Skulener Rebbe Shlit"a in Lakewood, New Jersey – fourth son of Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom Portugal. Rabbi Shmuel Mordechai Portugal – youngest child of Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom Portugal, and Skulener Rav in Boro Park. Rabbi Shmuel Mordechai married his niece Sheina Rachel Stern (daughter of Rebbetzin Leah Libba, and oldest grandchild of Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom Portugal) in 1990.

Daughters Rebbetzin Leah Libba – Wife of Rabbi Chayyim Dov Stern, Skulener Rav of Bnei Brak, son of Rabbi Yitzhak Yehuda Stern of Bielitz . Rebbetzin Chaya Sarah – Wife of Rabbi Shimon Yoel Weinberger, Skulener Dayan, son of Rabbi Moshe Dov Weinberger. Rebbetzin Nechamah – Wife of Rabbi David Leib Klughaupt, head of Skulener Kollel of Boro Park, son of Rabbi Ya'akov Shlomo Klughaupt, son of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Klughaupt.

Death Rebbe Portugal died on April 1, 2019, at about 5:45 PM in Johns Hopkins Hospital surrounded by his family. His funeral the following day as prescribed by Jewish law started in Brooklyn and Monsey and was attended by tens of thousands of people at both sites. The funerary proceedings were marked by a pair of incidents which each caused injury to a NYPD officer; the first in which an officer slipped and had his ankle broken by a hearse which ran over his leg and another where an out of fuel drone crashed down upon a police officer's head. He was buried next to his father at the Viznitz Cemetery in Monsey, New York. The Rebbe was 95.