Iconic Williamsburg: The Kapisher Rov

Rav Yaakov Segal Lebovitz, the Kapisher Rov, was a prominent dayan in postwar Williamsburg, the menahel of the Hisachdus Harabanim of the United States and Canada, and the author of she’eilos uteshuvos Mishnas Yaakov. 

‘The Chuster Iluy’

Rav Yaakov was born in the year 1897 in the city of Chust, Czechoslovakia, to his father Reb Ezra Lebovitz and his mother, Sarah Reiza. His father was an ehrliche balebos who had been a talmid of the Chuster Rov, Rav Yoel Tzvi Roth, author of Shu”t Beis Hayotzer. His mother was a pious woman who would pour out her heart during her tefillos that her children and grandchildren should go in the ways of Torah. 

As a young boy, he was known as a masmid with a bright intellect, and he was accepted to the yeshiva of the Volover Rov even as a boy who was not yet bar mitzvah. When he became fifteen years old, he entered the yeshiva of Rav Shaul Brach in Krule, where he learned with great hasmodoh for a number of years, until he began to deliver shiurim in the yeshiva while a young bochur, and became known as “the Chuster Iluy.” 

Unfathomable Loss 

In 1920, he became engaged to the daughter of Haga’on Rav Avrohom Yerushalmi of Chust, and the wedding was held there later that year. The couple remained in Chust, where Rav Yaakov continued learning with tremendous hasmodoh, living in dire poverty. During this time, he became active among the Rabbonim of the city, and involved in dinei Torah, gaining renown as a serious talmid chochom with a sechel hayoshor—and this is how the offer for the rabbonus in Kapish came to be offered to him.

A terrible tragedy befell the family when the Rebbetzin was nifteres, leaving behind eight young children. In 1938, he remarried and had another three children. 

Returning home to Hungary, broken at his incredible loss, the Kapisher Rov knew that he must forge ahead. He made his way to Budapest, where he set to work for the cause of the thousands of agunos who were separated from their husbands during the war. His teshuvos from that time were filed in the Budapest kehillah’s ledgers. In later years, when he was preparing his teshuvos Mishnas Yaakov for print, he returned to Budapest and transcribed the responsa from those ledgers. 

In 1949, when many of Hungary’s Yidden had left due to Communism, Rav Lebovitz settled in Fernwald, Germany, where there were thousands of Yidden, and he became a rov there, serving on the beis din. 

America 

In 1953, the Kapisher rov decided to make the move away from Germany. The Eida Hacharedis of Yerushalayim invited him to join the Beis Din, and he spent a number of months in Yerushalayim, but ultimately made his way to Williamsburg where it didn’t take long for him to gain fame, and for his apartment to be turned into a center for all those in need of advice and halachic rulings. 

He purchased the former Bostoner Shtiebel on Bedford and Wilson, and this became the Kapisher shtiebel. The Shul is still called Givas Pinchos d’Kapish, the same name that it used to be called during its time as a Bostoner shtiebel, in tribute to the Bostoner Rebbe, Rav Pinchos Dovid Horowitz, zt”l. 

In America, the Kapisher Rov continued his avodas hakodesh and incredible hasmodoh. He would sit in his seforim room, immersed in his seforim, only interrupted by the many questioners, many talmidei chachomim among them. 

He was a model of yiras Shomayim for all Williamsburg residents, and a true model of an old-fashioned rov of the old style. He was one of the greatest poskim in Williamsburg—and many of the Torah leaders of Williamsburg relied on him implicitly for his pesokim. Upon the call of the Divrei Yoel of Satmar, with whom he was very close, the Hisachdus Harabanim was founded, and the Kapisher Rov served as its menahel for many years. 

He returned his neshomoh to its Maker on 7 Adar, 1980, leaving behind generations of Torah-true descendants.