We regret to inform you of the passing of Rabbi Twerski.
Born in Milwaukee, to Devorah Leah nee Halberstam, who was the daughter of the second Rebbe of Bobov, and Rabbi Jacob Israel Twerski, who was the rabbi of Beth Jehudah synagogue in Milwaukee. The elder Rabbi Twerski immigrated to America in 1927, and was a descendant of Rabbi Menachem Nachum Twerski, the founder of the Chernobyl Hasidic dynasty, and a student of the Baal Shem Tov. Twerski was the third of five brothers. His two older brothers were Shloime and Motel, and his two younger brothers were twins, Aaron and Michel. He attended public high school in Milwaukee, and graduated at age 16. He enrolled in the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago (now located in Skokie, Illinois) and was ordained a rabbi in 1951. He worked with his father as assistant rabbi. In 1952 he married Goldie Flusberg. In 1953 Rabbi Twerski enrolled at Milwaukee’s Marquette University, and subsequently graduated from its medical school in 1960. He received his psychiatric training at the University of Pittsburgh, and spent an additional two years on the staff of a state hospital in Pennsylvania. He was then asked to become the head of the department of psychiatry at Pittsburgh’s St. Francis Hospital.
Rabbi Twerski requested that no eulogies be delivered at his funeral, and just to sing the song that he composed for his brother’s wedding more than sixty years ago, and which has become one of the standard niggunim songs within the traditional Jewish repertoire, no matter the circle. The lyrics are from Tehillim 28:9: Hoshia Es Amecha… Ad Olam. They were sung in front of The Rebbe many times.
