The Skverer Rebbe, Reb Yaakov Yosef Twersky zy"a

Biography

Reb Yaakov Yosef Twersky zy"a was the third Skverer Rebbe, and the founder of New Square. He was born on 15 Tammuz 5659 (23 June 1899) in Skvira, Ukraine, a son of Reb Dovid Twersky zy"a, the second Skverer Rebbe, and a grandson of Reb Yitzchak of Skver zy"a. The Skver dynasty comes from Chernobyl, and through that line he was also a descendant of the Baal Shem Tov zy"a. In 1919, during the pogroms after the Revolution, the family fled to Kiev. His father was niftar there on 15 Kislev, and the family later went to Kishinev.

In 5685 (1925) he married Rebbetzin Trana, a daughter of Reb Pinchas Twersky of Ostila, and spent about two years in Belz. He later led the Skverer chassidim in Kalarash, Romania, and afterward lived in Iasi, where he and his family survived the pogrom of 5701 (1941). After the war he was in Bucharest, and in 1948 he came to America. He lived first in Boro Park and then in Williamsburg, where he led Congregation Zemach David on Bedford Avenue. (English Wikipedia gives 1950 for his arrival; contemporaneous reports, including the New York Times, and Hebrew sources give 1948.)

In the mid-1950s he established New Square in Rockland County, the first Chasidic village in America. Sources date the founding to 1956 or 1957; some accounts say the land was purchased in 1954. He was known for a life of great prishus. He was niftar on 2 Nisan 5728 (31 March 1968) and rests in the large ohel in the New Square (Shikun Skver) cemetery, New Square, New York. By Skver custom, the matzeivah has no inscription. Your kvittel will be brought to his ohel. His son, Reb Dovid Twersky, succeeded him.

Historical background

After the war, Skver was rebuilt in America. New Square, founded by this Rebbe in Rockland County in the mid-1950s, was the first Chasidic village in the United States, and later courts followed a similar path.

Before & after