Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam (Hebrew: בן ציון אריה לייבוש הלברשטאם, born 1955) is the current Rebbe of the Bobov Hasidic dynasty.
Early life
Halberstam was born to the third Bobover rebbe, Grand Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam and his second wife.[2] His father had lost his first wife and most of their children in the Holocaust,[3] but a son, Naftali, survived.[1] Naftali was later reunited with the family in Borough Park, Brooklyn.[1]
Career
Right after his father's passing in 2000, Naftali was appointed as fourth Bobover Rebbe at age 69,[1] while Halberstam was appointed as Rav Hatza'ir (assistant rabbi). Naftali died right before the Purim holiday in 2005,[4] which led to a succession crisis over who should be the Grand Rebbe of the then 120,000 Bobov Hasidim worldwide.[1] Some began to follow Halberstam, while others followed Naftali's son-in-law Mordechai Dovid Unger, who was older by one year.[1] Unger had already ensconced himself firmly within the community by then, and could not challenge his own father's leadership of Dombrov, which anyway was not as substantial a dynasty.[5] The matter of succession was brought before a beth din (religious court) in 2007, which ruled that Halberstam would be declared the fifth Rebbe of Bobov (אדמו"ר מבאבוב) with its headquarters on 48th Street in Borough Park,[6] while Unger would be Rebbe of Bobov-45 (אדמו"ר מבאבוב-45), located on 45th Street.[6][7][8][9]
Personal life
In January 2021, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, the Times of Israel reported that an Israeli Haredi news website had announced that Halberstam's youngest son was to be married in a ceremony that had to be kept secret due to possible violations of social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines. The website subsequently changed its story to say that the ceremony would be kept small, while thousands of the sect's adherents were to follow the proceedings remotely. The Times reported that photos obtained from the wedding showed full attendance at the ceremony, and that Halberstam later rebuked people he referred to as mosrim for reporting on the event.[10]
