Rabbi Yisrael Shmuel Engel, a beloved teacher who impacted thousands of students as a lifelong educator, passed away on Thursday, Tzom Gedalya, 5782.
Rabbi Yisrael Shmuel Engel, a beloved teacher who impacted thousands of students as a lifelong educator, passed away on Thursday, Tzom Gedalya, 5782.
He was 86 years old.
Rabbi Yisrael Shmuel Engel was born in Hungary in 1934 and emigrated to the USA in 1939, right before World War II began.
His father, who served as rabbi in Duluth, Minnesota, sought out a Yeshiva in 1944 for his son Yisroel Shmuel. Impressed with the Yiras Shomayim at the Lubavitcher Yeshiva, he chose it for his son. Yisroel Shmuel was inspired by the Ahavas Yisrael in Lubavitch, and adopted an approach that remained with him for life: to inspire everyone he met to embrace Torah and Mitzvos, in the warm spirit of Chassidus. A great many individuals came to embrace Torah and Chassidus Chabad through his love, teaching, and encouragement.
In 1962, he married Leah Fogelman. Together they built a very warm and open home where all they encountered – whether they knew them or not – were made to feel as if it was their OWN home.
Yisroel Shmuel’s unique knack for inspiring children led him to a life devoted to Chinuch, being Mechaneich thousands of children, infusing them with an abiding love of HaShem, Torah and all Yidden.
In his youth, he helped coordinate the Released Time program and ran early Lag B’omer parades. He led Mesibos Shabbos programs for children – a custom he continued for some seventy years.
His teaching career began in the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Springfield, Massachusetts (1960-61). He continued in Oholei Torah (1962-2006), where thousands of Talmidim found through him a love of Torah learning, Davening, and Yiras Shomayim.
His energy seemed unending and was inspiring to all who met him. During the day he taught in Yeshiva school, in evenings he taught Shiurei Erev to avid learners (who loved his prizes!), and on Shabbos he gathered many (up to close to 100) children in the ‘770’ Shul, inspiring them to Daven with warmth and feeling (and to enjoy plenty of Nosh!). Shabbos afternoons he arranged Mesibos Shabbos (and more Nash…) His storytelling was spellbinding and legendary. Generations of campers in Gan Yisroel in Parksville and elsewhere in the Catskills also remember his inimitable and inspiring calls of rewards for studying Mishnayos by heart.
Rabbi Engel’s profoundly loving approach and devotion to each Talmid, his passion for learning and his uniquely creative way – through art, imagination and drama – to make Torah subjects accessible to the minds and hearts of his students, made him a Rebbe who touched thousands with a deep love for Torah learning and Yiddishkeit.
Rabbi Engel never gave up on his Talmidim – or anyone else, for that matter – and never stopped influencing them positively, whether they were to be found within the yeshivah walls or outside of them.
His Chessed to the needy was profound, exemplary, discreet and deeply heartfelt. His profound Ahavas Yisrael, infectious Simchas Chayim and incredible optimism brought Brochoh and joy to thousands – whether through his helping financial hand, a warm Shabbos meal, a place to sleep a night (or many…), or an uplifting word of encouragement he readily offered all he encountered – completely irrespective of their social, economic and/or spiritual station in life.
In his later years, he continued to teach and inspire young and old, in numerous Chabad houses in Florida where he spent winters, and in his summer residence in Cleveland, Ohio. As long as his Neshomoh breathed life into his Guf, he continued his Shlichus (life mission) to uplift and encourage every Yid he met, materially and spiritually.
He passed away after an illness.
He was predeceased by his first wife Mrs. Leah Engel (nee Fogelman).
He is survived by his second wife Mrs. Ada Engel (previously: Staiman) and by his children: Esther Bas Sheva Engel of Brooklyn NY, Chana Blumenfeld of Brooklyn, NY, Rabbi Yossi Engel of Adelaide, South Australia, Nechama Dina Brenenson of Brooklyn, NY, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Rabbi Engel’s family requests that people please share any positive experience or story, large or small, they had with Rabbi Yisrael Shmuel Engel, at:
https://sharetoremember.com/reb-yisroel-shmuel-engel
The Levaya will, B’Ezras HaShem, take place on Sunday, 6 Tishrei.
Shomrei Hadas at 12:00pm
Passing Oholei Torah and then 770 at 1:00pm
Shiva Information
(Week beginning 6 Tishrei)
711 Eastern Pkwy
Brooklyn, NY 11213
First Floor
Minyanim:
Shacharis
Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday
9:00am
Mincha & Maariv
Sunday, Monday & Tuesday
7:00pm
Mincha on Wednesday, Erev Yom Kippur
2:30pm
Nichum Aveilim:
Sunday
Until 9:30pm
Monday & Tuesday
10:00am – 2:00pm
5:30pm – 9:30pm
Wednesday, Erev Yom Kippur
10:00am – 12:00pm
He wasn’t just an incredible uncle, he was the most genuine human being and never even a thought to have anything in return for his generosity and kindness.
He will be terribly missed.
Zev, though we aren’t nephews we could not have said it better
Rabbi Engel went above and beyond his title as a rebbi. He made a davening program in 770 on Shabbos. He took personal interest in the boys. He made them mesibos shabbos and took them along on tahalucha, long after he stopped teaching them. May he have a lichtige gan eden!!
His ahavas Yisroel/chinam was total and genuine. And would bend over beyond backwards to help a fellow yid. And if teaching during the six weekdays wasn’t enough, he had the most amazing junior minyan on shabbos as well. And all this without looking for acknowledgment or credit.
I once worked as his assistant. What a kind man!
I was a kid every Sheba’s as kid going to מקוה every Sheba’s with was ho teach me and 770 as kids
I used to go to praying of the kids by rabbi Engel every Sheba’s and pray with the kids and get prices one of the prices that I get charity boxes like a תפילין and meat my mother are father in 770 and sea the rabbi I remember toll today I was praying as the kids as memory by me