A Vow Kept: The Klausenburger Rebbe’s Yahrzeit
The Klausenburger Rebbe. Photo: courtesy.
6/24/2026, 1:34:51 PM
Today, 9 Tammuz, marks the yahrzeit of the Admor of Sanz-Klausenburg, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam zt”l, author of Shefa Chaim and one of the great leaders of the last generation.
After losing his wife and eleven children in the Holocaust, the Rebbe rebuilt Sanz Chassidus from ashes. He founded Kiryat Sanz in Netanya and fulfilled a sacred vow made during a death march from Auschwitz to Dachau. Shot in the hand by a Nazi guard, he feared the camp clinic and tied a leaf to his wound to stop the bleeding. In that moment he pledged to Hashem: if he survived and reached Eretz Yisrael, he would build a hospital where every person is treated with dignity and holiness, regardless of religion, race, or nationality.
For 15 years he raised funds worldwide. The first major donation came from the estate of brothers Alfons and Yaakov Avraham Laniado, Syrian-Jewish bankers in Switzerland. The cornerstone was laid in 1974, and Laniado Medical Center opened in 1975 with its maternity ward.
The Rebbe gave Laniado two guiding principles: no strikes, ever – “just as soldiers don’t strike on the front, lifesavers don’t strike” – and operation under strict halachic supervision alongside top medical standards. He also founded the Tasha Nursing School to train nurses in professional care with warmth and faith.
Today Laniado serves over half a million people in Netanya and beyond, as the fulfillment of one man’s vow in humanity’s darkest hour.