Rabbi Yerachmiel Binyomin Halevi Klein, who served as a longtime personal aide to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, and as a liaison to Israeli leaders, passed away last Friday in New York. He was 79.
The rabbi was born in Jerusalem in 1935. As a young man, he excelled in his studies at Torat Emet, the Chabad yeshiva in Jerusalem.
In 1956 he left Israel for the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn to study at the Central Chabad Yeshivah, and once there he developed what would become a lifelong bond with the Rebbe.
When he arrived, the Rebbe sent a group of students to greet him at the airport. The following Shabbat at the weekly farbrengen, the Rebbe shared food at his table with him, a rare distinction.
Rabbi Klein threw himself into organizing Chabad’s fledgling educational activities, including Mesibos Shabbos, which gathered young people together on Saturday afternoons for an hour or two of Jewish education, inspiration, and entertainment. He traveled extensively as part of the Merkos Shlichus “Roving Rabbis” program, sweeping through many Western states, in addition to Cuba, South America, and other locales, bringing a connection to Jewish life to many isolated Jewish communities and individuals.
In 1961, he married Laya Schusterman. Her father, Rabbi Mordechai Schusterman, was among the leading chassidim in the Crown Heights community and frequently read the Torah in the Rebbe’s presence at Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway.
The young couple was subsequently dispatched by the Rebbe to Melbourne, Australia, where the rabbi was among the founders of the Yeshivah Gedolah of Australia and New Zealand.
Shortly afterward, in 1963, he returned to New York. At the Rebbe’s suggestion, he joined the Rebbe’s secretariat as an aide to Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov, the Rebbe’s chief of staff.
A native Hebrew speaker, Rabbi Klein developed close connections over the years with leaders of every branch of Israel’s political, military, and security leadership, who regularly sought the Rebbe’s counsel. Even decades later, he was famously tight-lipped about the Rebbe’s extensive dealings with them.
The Klein home, just a few doors down from 770, was open to visitors from all streams of life. Spiritual seekers, social leaders and people hungry for a hot meal and a warm word of comfort knew they were welcome there.
At 770, he was a friendly and approachable mentor to yeshiva students, who relished the opportunity to interact with an aide of the Rebbe’s.
He served as a board member of Machne Israel, the social-services arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, and for many years led Kollel Menachem, the institution for advanced Torah study for married men in Crown Heights.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, all of whom are Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries: Rochel Gordon (London); Faige Sudak (London); Chanie Garelik (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Shternie Krinsky (Manchester, N.H.); Rabbi Levi Klein (Memphis, Tenn.); Esther Hadassah Ciment (Little Rock, Ark.); Rivka Grossbaum (Minnetonka, Minn.); Devora Schmerling (Queens, N.Y.); Miriam Moscowitz (Northbrook, Ill.); and Rabbi Yaakov Klein (Moscow)
Rabbi Klein was laid to rest near the Rebbe at the Old Montefiore cemetery in Queens, N.Y.