Family Stories: Malowicki

Elisheva Malowicki shared the details on the family of this scion of the Lechovicher Rebbes and we are extremely grateful!

Rebbe Pinchas Malowicki
The Lechovicher (and Slonimer) Rebbe in America
based on the family tree and genealogical information shared by
Rabanit Elisheva Malowicki, copyright 2008

Elisheva, long a supporter of historical research and Jewish genealogy, sent an email in the Summer of 2008 that began this way:

I am enjoying the Lechowitz site immensely. It is full of information! I have a few photos to upload -- of R" Pinchas Malowicki (my husband's great-grandfather), born in Lechowicz. His brother was the rebbe of Lechowicz. He married Lea Weinberg, who was born in 1870 in Slonim and was the daughter of the Slonimer Rebbe, R" Shmuel Weinberg ( called the "Divrei Shmuel") and Gitele Rabinowicz. R" Pinchas Malowicki went to the United States in his older years together with a daughter and son-in-law in order to take up the position of Rebbe in America. He was then known as the Lechowiczer Rebbe of America (also sometimes called the Slonimer Rebbe of America). His wife and the rest of his children, who were all married off by that time, remained behind in Europe and fell victim to the Holocaust, may their names be avenged.

With that information, and a few scattered newspaper reports from the 1920s, the webmaster wrote the following report which is abbreviated on our page Rabbis, Crown Rabbis, and Rabbonim which I hope complements Elisheva's family research.

The Lechowitzer Rebbe in America
copyright 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Malowicki the Lechowitzer Rebbe in America aka the Slonimer Rebbe in America. Born in 1870 to the Lechowitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Noahke, - Pinchas' brother Rabbi Jochanan became the leader of Lechovicher Hasidim as a whole with Rabbi Pinchas close at hand to help in nearby Baranovichi. Eventually, in his sixtieth year, Rabbi Pinchas undertook to see personally to the care of those in America. Both brothers continued the strong ties to the Slonimer Hasidic community that made them part of both family and shared chassidus. Both men married daughters of the household of the Slonimer Rebbe - Rabbi Pinchas marrying Leah, the daughter of the renowned " 'Divrei Shmuel' of Slonim" Rebbe Shmuel Weinberg. Rabbi Shmuel's father Rabbi Avraham who had been taught by Rabbi Noah of Lyakhovichi and Rabbi Moshe of Kobrin was the founder of the Slonimer path and Rabbi Shmuel's leadership was undisputed in his lifetime. The ties between both Lechovich and the Slonimers grew stronger in this period, and Baranovichi, the home of the Slonimer Rebbes, was the home of Rabbi Pinchas as well, with the majority of his children being born in that town.

After World War I all of the main streams of Hasidim concentrated on providing services for their congregants in devastated communities in Poland and Russia but Lechovich and Slonim looked abroad also. They were among the first to concentrate resources in Eretz Israel and after rebuilding the resources of the Baranovichi yeshivot through the 1920s, in 1930 they asked Rabbi Pinchas what he could do for those who were in the USA.

He was a man in his sixties, his children were grown, and his wife was settled in the community in which she had lived her entire life. He could have stayed home and studied surrounded by sharp and eager minds in the Yeshivot of Baranovichi, he could have enjoyed his grandchildren - five children had given him a rich bounty. Rabbi Pinchas was asked to reach out to the Slonimer-Lechovicher community that had already settled in the US and he enlisted the help of his daughter and son-in-law in the mission. Traveling with his daughter Sura Feiga and her husband Rabbi Hirsch Landau (later called the Aliker Rebbe) he moved to the United States in November 1931. Full of faith that he would be sustained and that his wife and adult children were well settled, he began seeing to the spiritual needs of Lechovichers and Slonimers in the USA who were living in cities as far apart as Detroit and New York City, Cleveland and Louisville Kentucky. According to the newspaper reports of the day, seeing this scion of Lechovich who epitomized learning and belief, was incredibly important to those fortunate enough to have him stop in their communities. He died in the US while traveling to meet the needs of his far-flung congregation. His congregants were surprised that he had left instructions not to be removed to a more important cemetery and his burial site remained among the graves of Russian emigrants from Minsk and Grodno guberniyas in Cleveland Ohio. His wife and children who he had thought safe from the travails of his peripatetic life in the US, were murdered in the Holocaust, and only a few grandchildren survived. While I filled in information from newspaper sources of the day, I am immensely grateful to the rabanit Elisheva Malowicki who provided the information on Rabbi Pinchas, her husband Rabbi Chaim Malowicki's great-grandfather.

The Descendants of Rebbe Pinchas Malowicki
by Elisheva Malowicki , copyright 2008

His children were:

1. R" Avraham Aharon Malowicki (HY"D; my husband's grandfather), born ca. 1890. He married Jocheved Charne (HY"D), daughter of R" Baruch Mordechai Charne and Tusia Minz. The had five children--1) Tusia Malowicki (Survivor), 2) Shmuel Malowicki (HY"D), 3) Yehoshua Malowicki (Survivor, born 1923, and my husband's father), 4) Gitele Malowicki (HY"D), and 5) Ester Malowicki (HY"D). Except for Tusia and Yehoshua, all other members of this family perished in the Holocaust.

2. Rebbezin Chaya Malowicki (born about 1895 or 1899, HY"D). Married to Jakov Josef Sfarad, HY"D, of Ostog,son of R" Alter Mordechai Sfarad and Faiga. He was known as the Ostreh Rebbe. They had the following children (perhaps more): 1) Reisel Sfarad, HY"D, who married her uncle Noach Malowicki. She was born 1916 in Ostrog. 2) Szmuel Sfarad, HY"D,who was born 1918 in Ostrog and 3) Perl Sfarad, HY"D, who was born 1922 in Ostrog. This family perished in the Holocaust.

3. R" Shlomo Zalman Malowicki, HY"D, born about 1898. Resided for a time in Krzemieniec, Poland, and also Radzwill. He was killed in Zmigrad in 1942. Wife and children unknown.

4. Jochanan Malowicki (or perhaps Jochim), HY"D, born about 1900. He married Zirle of Zamosch, HY"D. They had two children, Jakov Eisek, HY"D, born 1929, and Yisroel Avraham,HY"D, born 1931. This family perished in the Holocaust.

5. Hershel (Zwi Arie) Malowicki, HY"D. Married Tzipora Hirsh, HY"D, of Warsaw. Perished in the Holocaust.

6. Blima Malowicki, HY"D, about 1907. She married Zwi Hirsh Kacowicz, HY"D, who was the AB"D of Antonovka. They had at least two children: 1) Frieda Malowicki, HY"D, born about 1938, and 2) a second child,HY"D, born about 1940.

7. Noach Malowicki, HY"D, born about 1914. He married the daughter of his oldest sister Chaya. His wife was named Reisl (Rosa) Sfarad, HY"D.

8. Sura Feige Malowicki, married to R" Hirsh Leib Landau, the Aliker Rebbe. She and her husband moved to the USA with her father, R" Pinchas Malowicki, where they have descendents even today.