Esther Chana Vagshal, Who Educated Generations of Girls in Israel, Dies at 86

Blessed is the true Judge: with great sorrow and deep mourning, news arrived this morning, Wednesday, of the passing, after a good name and a long life, of the important and righteous woman, daughter of martyrs, Mrs. Esther Chana Vagshal, of Beitar Illit, at the age of 86.

The funeral procession departed today, Wednesday, at 10:00 a.m. from her home on Yismach Israel 8 in Beitar Illit, and at 12:30 p.m. from the Shamgar Funeral Home in Jerusalem, on the way to Har HaMenuchot, Har Tamir, where she will be buried.

The deceased was born to her father, the late Rabbi Moshe Rubin. When she came of age, she married her husband, Rabbi Yisrael Yosef Vagshal, one of the prominent and elder members of the Karlin-Stolin Hasidim.

Those who knew her and her family describe a model woman, fearing Heaven in all her ways, who loved Torah and those who study it, and honored them with all her strength. She was imbued with steadfast faith and poured out her heart like water in her pure and sincere prayers, from the depths of her heart.

For most of her life, the deceased devoted herself to the sacred work of educating Jewish girls in Torah and proper conduct, serving as an educator at Beit Yaakov Katamonim and later at Beit Malka of the Belz Hasidic court, raising generations of students in the ways of tradition while instilling in them values of modesty, love of God, and good character.

She merited to leave behind upright and blessed generations, sons and daughters, sons-in-law, and descendants who follow the path of Torah and Hasidism. May her soul be bound in the bond of life.