Mrs. Dussia (Daisy) Bradpiece, a'h, the widow of HaRav
Ben-Tzion of the Gateshead kehilloh, was brought to
rest in Jerusalem last week at the age of 94.
Born in Newcastle, England in 5669 (1909), she lost her
father Rav Aryeh Meir Wilensky at the age of 12. Then she
assumed the burden of providing for the family, while helping
her mother care for her younger siblings.
In 5700 (1940) she married and began to build a home of Torah
with a driven commitment to chinuch habonim in a place
almost entirely devoid of Torah and Yiddishkeit,
eventually turning their home into a beacon for the area
and paving the way for other Jewish families to send their
sons to yeshiva. Later her daughter married an outstanding
ben Torah, a practice almost unheard of in Newcastle
at the time.
Mrs. Bradpiece's acts of chesed were known far and
wide. She would cook for Jews who had to be hospitalized and
opened her home to all in need.
In his hesped, her son-in-law, HaRav Moshe Kopshitz,
rov of Jerusalem's Romema neighborhood and one of the heads
of Yeshivas Kol Yaakov, spoke of her mesirus nefesh in
educating her children and her zechus through her
offspring -- children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren
engaged in Torah and yiras Shomayim.
Her son, Rav Yaakov Shmuel Bradpiece, one of the roshei
yeshiva of Yeshivas Ohr Somayach, delivered an
impassioned hesped in which he tearfully recounted a
life of constantly helping others, from her early childhood
until her twilight years. Then her son, R' Shaul Bradpiece, a
pillar of the chareidi community in Golders Green, offered
some short words of parting.
