Reb Yehuda Aharon Widavsky Z”L, one of Israel’s oldest Holocaust survivors and a longtime Sochatchover and Modzitzer chossid, was niftar on the first night of Rosh Hashanah at the remarkable age of 107.
Reb Yehuda Aharon was born on 27 Tammuz 5679 (1919) in the Polish town of Turek to his father, Reb Avraham Mordechai Z”L. As a young man, he became deeply connected to the Sochatchover Rebbes. His family later moved to Lodz, where he helped manage the family textile business and was active in Jewish communal life.
With the outbreak of World War II, his life was shattered. He was imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto and later deported to Auschwitz. Despite enduring unimaginable horrors and losing most of his family Hy”d, he survived the Holocaust while steadfastly maintaining his emunah and Jewish identity.
Following liberation, he married his wife, Mrs. Dabrish A”H, née Wasserzug. In 1950, the couple moved to Eretz Yisroel, where they rebuilt their lives and established a family rooted in Torah and Yiras Shomayim — something he viewed as the ultimate victory over the Nazis.
For decades, Reb Yehuda Aharon dedicated himself to preserving Jewish cemeteries and kivrei tzaddikim throughout Poland. Beginning in the 1970s, he invested tremendous effort and resources working with Polish authorities to restore the massive Jewish cemetery in Lodz and preserve hundreds of graves and cemetery sites across the country.
His painstaking work also helped lead to the restoration and rebuilding of the ohel of the Sochatchover Rebbes in Sochaczew, which remains a destination for thousands who travel there to daven.
Throughout his long life, Reb Yehuda Aharon remained closely connected to the Rebbes of Modzitz and Sochatchov. He was blessed with extraordinary longevity and retained his clarity of mind into his final years. A special celebration was held upon his 100th birthday, attended by Rebbes, Rabbanim and public figures.
Several years ago, he suffered the loss of his son-in-law, noted physician Dr. Reb Mordechai Himmelfarb Z”L, a Modzitzer chossid and prominent ear, nose and throat specialist in Bnei Brak and at Ichilov Hospital.
Reb Yehuda Aharon leaves behind generations of descendants continuing the Jewish life and legacy he rebuilt after emerging from the ashes of Auschwitz.
Yehi zichro baruch.
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