The roshei yeshiva of Yeshivas Ponovezh and other rabbonim
and roshei yeshivos took part in the levaya of
Rebbetzin Zlata Malkoh Ginsburg, o"h, the wife of the
late rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir of the U.S., HaRav Ephraim
Mordechai Ginsburg and the daughter of the Mashgiach of
Yeshivas Mir and Yeshivas Ponovezh, HaRav Yechezkel
Levenstein, on erev Shabbos Parshas Korach. She was
buried near her husband in the Zichron Meir Cemetery in Bnei
Brak.
Rebbetzin Zlata Malkoh Ginsburg was born in Kelm on 7 Adar
5674 (1914). Her father R' Yechezkel was a talmid of
the famed Talmud Torah of Kelm, and her mother Chayoh was the
daughter of a local melamed.
At the end of the First World War HaRav Levenstein was
summoned to Yeshivas Mir to serve as a temporary replacement
for the mashgiach, HaRav Yeruchom Leibowitz zt"l until
the latter's return after the dislocations of the War. R'
Chatzkel moved to Poland, leaving his wife and two young
daughters behind in Kelm for three years, during which the
heads of the Talmud Torah in Kelm helped to educate the two
girls. After HaRav Levenstein returned to Kelm he was
summoned to Yeshivas Kletsk, where the family lived near the
rosh yeshiva HaRav Aharon Kotler, zt"l.
Later the family left Kletsk for the town of Mir, where they
lived near the yeshiva. There the deceased was married to R'
Ephraim Mordechai Ginsburg, a talmid at the yeshiva
and a talmid muvhok of the Brisker Rov zt"l.
The latter said the Mashgiach had found a great lamdan
and tzaddik to be his son-in-law. The Ginsburgs
assisted the Mashgiach and his wife throughout the years.
When the yeshiva was displaced and roamed to Shanghai, Mrs.
Ginsburg ventured out among the Chinese in search of special
foods for the her father the Mashgiach. Her husband stood out
for his exceptional ability and erudite Torah scholarship. In
Shanghai he would present chaburos to the
talmidim.
Upon arriving in the U.S. after the war in 5707 (1947)
together with the Mashgiach and the talmidim of the
yeshiva HaRav Ginsburg began to engage in harbotsas
Torah. When the Mashgiach left the U.S. with his other
son- in-law, HaRav Reuven Ginsburg, HaRav Avrohom Kalmanovitz
asked HaRav Ephraim Mordechai to serve as a rosh yeshiva of
Yeshivas Mir in the U.S. His assiduousness and greatness in
Torah and mussar became known throughout the U.S. and
he succeeded in harbotzas Torah for many years,
together with his wife.
When her husband passed away in 5720 (1960) Rebbetzin
Ginsburg assumed the task of raising her sons and daughters.
With help from gedolei Yisroel, she succeeding in
raising them to lives of Torah in the midst of American
materialism. Despite the difficulty in parting from them she
sent her sons to Yeshivas Ponovezh, where they were taken
under the wings of the Mashgiach, who guided them along the
path of Torah and mussar.
Until her last day the deceased maintained her mental
clarity, guiding her grandchildren and great-grandchildren
and urging them to perpetuate the ways of the greats of the
previous generations. Many of the leading figures from
Yeshivas Mir and her talmidim in Shanghai and the U.S.
would come to her for her sagely advice and to hear her
faithfully-rendered anecdotes and hanhogos of the
greats from the previous generation.
A model of truth, modesty and simplicity, the deceased
followed in her father's path of tzidkus. Toward the
end of her life she asked to be eulogized by her sons alone
out of a concern that other maspidim might make
exaggerated remarks.
Rebbetzin Zlata Malkoh Ginsburg o"h is survived by her
sons, HaRav Chaim Yeruchom, a ram at Yeshivas
Lakewood, HaRav Eliezer, rosh kollel of Yeshivas Mir and rov
of Beis Knesses Agudas Yisroel in Flatbush, HaRav Yisroel,
rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Staten Island, and HaRav Moshe, a
ram at Yeshivas Mir LeTze'irim, as well as her sons-in-
law, HaRav Avrohom Chaim Levine, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas
Telz-Chicago, and HaRav Zalman Rubin, a ram in New
York.
