The Chabad Roots of Jerusalem’s Mayor

As we reported sometime back, Mayor Nir Barekat of Jerusalem spoke about his Chabad roots in a recent interview and said that his father was named Zalman after his grandfather, Rabbi Schneur Zalman ben Dov Benkovitz, who came originally from Homil.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman Benkovitz may have been named after the Alter Rebbe, and his father Dov was probably named after the Mitteler Rebbe. Mr. Barekat was not sure of this, but his fellow councilman Rabbi Yaakov Halperin explained this possibility to him and suggested that family researchers should check this out.

Chabad historian Rabbi Schneur Zalman Berger decided to investigate, and he found an notice in in the old Labor newspaper, Davar, from the summer of 1930 that expressed wedding congratulations to Mussia Benkovitz, another Chabad name and also the original surname of Mr. Barekat’s family.

This information was sent to the mayor, who sent a thank you letter for the research into his family background.
(SOURCE & PHOTO: COL.ORG.IL)