Borough President’s Statement on the Loss of Grand Rabbi Naftali Halberstam
Rabbi Naftali Halberstam, the grand rabbi of the Bobov Hasidic sect, was widely regarded as a conciliator in his Borough Park community, and among all the Hasidic groups of Brooklyn . Descended from a rabbinic dynasty, Rabbi Halberstam became the Bobover Rebbe in 2000, after the death of his father, Grand Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam. A refugee from Hitler ' s Europe , Rabbi Halberstam settled in Brooklyn after World War II, where he assisted his father in rebuilding the Bobov sect, which had been almost completely obliterated during the war. He is dearly missed.