RELIGION

Sholom Lipskar

Rabbi

The rabbi of the Shul of Bal Harbour in Miami Beach, Sholom Lipskar was faced with a massive relief operation following the collapse in June of the Champlain Towers South residential building, in which 98 people were killed. Jewish families who lost everything in the rubble turned to the synagogue for help, while rescue crews attending to the scene were provided with meals from the synagogue kitchen. In such a situation, “leadership is a kind of burden because you’re empathizing with so much pain that you find it hard to maintain composure, which is so necessary to sustain the kind of feelings you want people to have,” Lipskar reflected in a media interview. He added: “When the physical is challenged to such a degree, there’s still that spirituality we can hold onto.” Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the 74-year-old Lipskar was ordained in the Lubavitch Yeshiva of Brooklyn in 1968. (Photo: Chabad.org)