Rebbetzin Sara Finkel a”h

 Matzav- with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of Rebbetzin Sara Finkel a”h. She was 101 years old.

Rebbetzin Finkel was the mother of the venerated rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir Yerushalayim, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel zt”l.

Rebbetzin Finkel was a daughter of R’ Shmuel and Kreindel Leah Rosenblum, noted baalei chesed and machnisei orchim. Kreindel Leah came from Gerer Chassidic lineage: her father, R’ Yitzchok Meir Lubling, was a lamdan in Bedzin, Poland.

Rebbetzin Finkel’s family immigrated from Europe to America after World War I.

Rebbetzin Finkel grew up at a time when Bais Yaakov was not yet established in most of America, especially in St. Paul, Minnesota, where her family lived. Her parents sent her to Hebrew School, which took place after public school for less than two hours each day.

Rebbetzin Finkel married her husband, R’ Eliyahu Meir Finkel, though they came from two different backgrounds. He was born in Europe and immigrated to Eretz Yisroel a few years before his bar mitzvah with his parents and older brother, arriving from Minsk, where R’ Eliyahu Meir’s grandfather, the Alter of Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, was rosh yeshiva at the Slabodka Yeshiva. R’ Eliyahu Meir’s mother, Rebbetzin Golda, was a daughter o Rav Yehuda Hachanachi, rov of Chechenoftze. R’ Eliyahu Meir later learned in Chevron in Yerushalayim and at Yeshiva College in New York in 1938. Rebbetzin Finkel, on the other hand, was an American girl.

Rebbetzin Finkel gave birth to her son, Rav Nosson Tzvi, on March 12, 1943 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago. Another son, Rav Gedalya, was born later.

R’ Eliyahu Meir and Rebbetzin Finkel were active in the Chicago community. He was among the first organizers of Agudas Yisroel in Chicago, where he served as vice president, and also served on the board of Telshe Yeshiva in Chicago.

Ultimately, Rebbetzin Finkel gained renowned as an aim shel malchus, a mother of royalty, as her son grew to become one of the gedolei roshei yeshiva, who was maamid thousands of talmidim and loved each of them like a child.

The levayah will be held today at Yeshivas Mir Yerushalayim at 1 p.m.