JL;DR
Daily Podcasts Video Research
Communities · History

In Memoriam: Moshe Leib Weiser

Summarizing Pini Dunner in Tablet · Published Wednesday, August 19, 2020
menu_book Read Original bookmark star

JL;DR SUMMARY Moshe Leib Weiser, a little-known yet remarkable figure in Jewish bibliographic circles, recently passed away. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Holocaust  London Jewish Community  Rabbinic History  Hasidic History  Moshe Leib Weiser  Jewish Bibliography  Shvartze Rebbe  Belzer Hasidism  Jewish Book World  Jewish Bibliophiles 

Places mentioned

Israel
"A few weeks ago while quarantining in Israel with my son who is enlisting to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, I was researching Hasidic rebbes in prewar and postwar London, and came across a reference to a mysterious character known as the Shvartze Rebbe."
Poland
"The Shvartze Rebbe was R. Moshe Yoel Eichenstein, he wrote, a direct descendent of the Zidichover Rebbe, the illustrious Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of Zidichov, one of the great Hasidic leaders of Poland during the 19th century."
London, England, United Kingdom
"R. Moshe Yoel Eichenstein arrived in England without his family before World War II, to escape the worsening situation in Poland, and to find a livelihood."
Enfield, England, United Kingdom
"He was buried at the Adass Yisroel cemetery in Enfield, not far from another far better known Hasidic fixture of postwar London, the Shotzer Rebbe, R. Sholom Moskovitz, who died a year later."
Stamford Hill, England, United Kingdom
"Moshe Leib Weiser was a devout Belzer Hasid, who lived deep in the North London Stamford Hill community."
Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"He belonged to a community of Belzer Hasidim who never accepted the current Belzer Rebbe, R. Yissachar Dov Rokeach, as a true replacement for R. Ahron of Belz, the scion of Belz who escaped the Holocaust, arriving in Tel Aviv in early 1944."
Jerusalem, Israel
"Mr. Weiser helped initiate the bibliographic project of the Jewish National & University Library at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem."
Oxford, England, United Kingdom
"Similarly, Mr. Weiser did research for the bibliographic project at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and at various other public and private libraries."
New York, United States
"There would be several auctions over the next few years unloading the centuries-old treasures from the Library of the London Beth Din, which have since expanded many private Judaica collections around the world. In the preface to the first auction, held at Christies in New York on June 23, 1999Important Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books from The Library of the London Beth Din, Sold by Order of the Trustees of the United Synagoguealmost certainly penned by Moshe Leib Weiser, his name is notable by its absence."

Support this source

attach_money Donate to Tablet
This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 77927
Cairo Source ID 10
Retrieved 2026-03-18 05:32:46 UTC
Curated 2026-03-18 08:31:16 UTC