Rabbi Hershel Pfeffer, who was sent by the Frierdiker Rebbe to Pittsburgh and served there as shochet, sofer and gabbai of the Lubavitch Center, passed away on Sunday, 20 Iyar.
Rabbi Hershel Pfeffer, a longtime member and pillar of the Pittsburgh Chabad community, passed away on Sunday, 20 Iyar, 5780.
He was 99 years old.
Rabbi Pfeffer was sent to Pittsburgh by the Frierdiker Rebbe, and he lived there for over seven decades. There, he served as shochet, sofer and gabbai of the Lubavitch Center.
He is survived by his daughter Neshi Pfeffer of Pittsburgh, grandchildren Rena and Schneur Plotkin of Crown Heights, and Ari and Leah Sollish of Atlanta, and great-grandchildren.
The levaya will pass by 770 Eastern Parkway on Monday 9:45 AM, and burial at Montefiore Cemetery will be at 10:30 AM.
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Rabbi Pfeffer was already in his late 80s when I got to know him while learning in Yeshiva there, but he was still a very active Sofer and Gabbai. He would check Mezuzos for Mivtzoim for free, and was always in a good mood around the bochurim. That meant a lot, since for us Pittsburgh bochurim, even then, having two Shluchim of the Frierdiker Rebbe around (him and Rabbi Altein A”H) – they might as well have been Tannaim.
Later, well into his mid-90s, I would still frequently see him in 770, davening with the Rebbe’s minyan.
A very special Chossid. BD”H.