In memory

Rabbi Avrohom Levi Lipskier

15 Adar I 5700 — 28 Elul 5786

Rabbi Avrohom Levi Lipskier, mashpia and rosh yeshiva, of Crown Heights, passed away on Thursday, 28 Elul, at the age of 86. He taught baalei t’shuva for more than sixty years, beginning before there was a yeshiva to teach them in.

Rabbi Avrohom Lipskier saved a generation.

Rabbi Boruch Merkur, “The Final Push,” June 2026

He was born in Kutaisi, Georgia, to R’ Yankel and Teibel Lipskier. The family left the Soviet Union and reached America in 5708. He learned in 770, and in 5722 was sent to Brunoy, France.

In 1962, while he was still a bochur learning for smicha, young men began wandering into 770. This magazine reported in issue #848 that the locals were afraid of them, and that he was not: he learned with them one to one, then in small groups, then in a class in 770. Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson, the mashpia to the rabbinical students, told him to keep going. The following year Rabbi Jacobson opened Hadar HaTorah with the Rebbe’s blessing and hired him as its main teacher. It was the first baal t’shuva yeshiva.

He married Cirel, daughter of the shliach Reb Berel Baumgarten. He taught at Hadar HaTorah until 1967, then went on shlichus to Milan. In 1972 he wrote to the Rebbe about an offer to work on college campuses, and the Rebbe told him to accept it.

That year he advertised a summer program in Morristown called “Live and Learn.” Rabbi Gurary of Buffalo telephoned to say he was bringing five students to Crown Heights for Shavuos: “If they don’t go straight from Crown Heights to learn in Morristown, they’ll go in all different directions and we’ll lose them.” The five came ten days early. One of them, Avrohom Schwarzberg, wanted to stay on, and wrote to the Rebbe. The Rebbe answered, “Since you were successful where you were until now, you should stay.” That was the beginning of Yeshivas Tiferes Bachurim, which he led for decades. In 5760 he founded Yeshivas Tiferes Menachem in Sea Gate.

Asked in 2012 what his message to his students was, he said it was the study and practice of Chassidus and a deep attachment to the Rebbe, and that this was what built, in his words, “not followers, but Jewish leaders.”

The levaya passed 770 at three o’clock on the day of his passing, and he was buried at Old Montefiore, near the Ohel. He is survived by his wife Cirel; by Mrs. Chani Kaminetzky of Dnipro, Rabbi Mendel Lipskier of Sherman Oaks, Mrs. Dinie Mangel of Cherry Hill, Mrs. Shternie Backman of Glendale, Mrs. Chaya Mushka Silberberg of Crown Heights and R’ Berel Lipskier of Crown Heights; by grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and by seven siblings.

Within a day or two of Gimmel Tammuz, Rabbi Avrohom Lipskier, the celebrated chassid and founder of Tiferes Bachurim, came into the classroom and gave his devastated students a likut, a compilation of the Rebbe’s teachings. … Reb Lipskier gave us a seder ha’avoda, a structured order of spiritual work to uplift us.

“The Final Push,” June 2026

I remember seeing mashpia Rabbi Avrohom Lipskier in 770 on Gimmel Tammuz. I looked at him perplexed. He shrugged. It was a time of shock. … I think it was Dalet Tammuz, the very next day, when Rabbi Lipskier gathered us into a classroom. His shrug was gone. His command had returned. He had a Yechi HaMelech pamphlet in hand and we learned, our faith restored and refocused. Here is a leader who helped us defy despair.

“Who Are You?!” issue #1173, 5779

The legendary chassid and mashpia, Rabbi Avrohom Lipskier, famed for leading so many Jews to the path of t’shuva with his inviting smile and charisma, used to farbreng almost daily with his students. It was a rigorous regime of ongoing, uplifting inspiration that lasted for years.

“Be a Man – Of G-d,” issue #1165, 5779

In this archive:

• Renowned Mentor to the Baal Teshuva Movement Marks 50 Years — issue #848
• Tiferes Alumni Farbrengen in Yerushalayim — issue #1098