Jerusalem has lost one of its prominent Belz Hasidim, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Strauss, who died after a long illness and suffering at the age of 66. The family announced that his funeral will take place Thursday at 11:00 a.m., starting at Sanhedria Funeral Home, passing the main Belz synagogue in Kiryat Belz, and continuing to the Kehilas Machzikei Hadas plot on Mount of Olives for burial.
Strauss was born on 30 Shevat 5720 in Bnei Brak to Rabbi Tzvi Eliezer, known as Rabbi Herschel, one of the senior Belz Hasidim in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem. His mother is the daughter of Rabbi David Kaufman, also described as a senior Belz Hasid in Tel Aviv. His father was a devoted Belz Hasid, closely attached to the former Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, and later to the current Belzer Rebbe, and was known as a rich source of stories and traditions from the dynasty.
The article traces the family’s Belz lineage back to Krakowice in Galicia, including famed prayer leaders and Hasidic elders such as Rabbi Yosef Strauss, Rabbi Yehuda Hirsch, and Rabbi Lipa Yom Tov. Strauss studied in Belz institutions in Bnei Brak and later in the large Belz yeshiva in Jerusalem.
As an adult, he married the daughter of Rabbi Zev Grinberger. He is survived by his elderly mother, his only son Rabbi David, his daughters, sons-in-law, and siblings. In recent weeks he had weakened, though only a little more than a month ago he still attended the brit milah of a grandson, the son of his son-in-law Rabbi Shemsi Labron, one of the notable young Belz activists.
