Rebbetzin Esther Zaks, 91, Wife and Daughter of Leading Yeshiva Heads, Passes Away in Modiin Ilit
Rebbetzin Esther Zaks, wife of the late Rosh Yeshiva of Knesset Hagedolah Rabbi Hillel Zaks and daughter of the late Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron, has passed away at 91 in Modiin Ilit. Remembered by yeshiva alumni as a true "mother of the yeshiva," her funeral will be held tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Rebbetzin Ahuvah Esther Zaks, wife of the late Rosh Yeshiva of Knesset Hagedolah, Rabbi Hillel Zaks, and daughter of the late Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron, Rabbi Avraham Moshe Chevroni, passed away today at 91.
In recent years, the Rebbetzin's health had deteriorated, with frequent hospitalizations. On the eve of Shavuot she was taken to the emergency room, and her son Rabbi Yitzchak Zaks, who serves as Rosh Yeshiva in his late father's steadm cancelled a planned trip abroad last Motzei Shabbat as her condition worsened.
The Rebbetzin was born into one of the most distinguished Torah families in the Lithuanian yeshiva world. Her father headed Yeshivat Chevron, and her mother was a granddaughter of the Rosh Yeshiva of Slobodka, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein. She grew up in Jerusalem near the yeshiva, where she developed a lifelong dedication to yeshiva students and Torah scholarship.
She married Rabbi Hillel Zaks at the suggestion of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, the Rosh Yeshiva of Lakewood, who proposed the match to her father. The couple first settled near the Lakewood yeshiva in the United States before returning to Israel in the early 1960s, eventually settling in Jerusalem's Geula neighborhood near Yeshivat Chevron, where Rabbi Hillel served as a lecturer and later as Rosh Yeshiva.
In the mid-1990s, Rabbi Hillel founded Yeshivat Knesset Hagedolah in Modiin Ilit, and the family became among the city's first residents. Alumni of the yeshiva remembered the Rebbetzin as a true "mother of the yeshiva" - caring personally for each student and dedicating herself entirely to the yeshiva's wellbeing. "From the moment she woke up until she went to sleep, the yeshiva and the kollel families were all that mattered to her," alumni told Kikar HaShabbat.
Her husband passed away over 11 years ago, yet she continued to reside on the yeshiva campus and remained devoted to its students until her final days.
She is survived by seven sons and two sons-in-law, all Torah scholars.
The funeral is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today, departing from Yeshivat Knesset Hagedolah in Modiin Ilit, continuing to Shamgar funeral home, and concluding at the family plot on Har HaZeitim, where she will be laid to rest beside her husband.
Yehi zichra baruch - may her memory be a blessing.