Rebbetzin Rivka Rubashkin, Mother of Freed Prisoner Sholom Rubashkin, Dies at 90

The global Chabad community and Jewish philanthropic world are mourning the passing of Rebbetzin Rivka Rubashkin, matriarch of one of Brooklyn's most prominent Orthodox families and mother of Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, whose dramatic presidential commutation in 2017 became a rallying cry for Jewish unity worldwide. She died Sunday at her Boro Park home at age 90.

Rebbetzin Rubashkin's death marks the end of an era for a generation of European-born Holocaust survivors who rebuilt Jewish life in America through a combination of entrepreneurial vision and relentless charity. Together with her late husband, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Rubashkin — widely credited as a pioneer of the glatt kosher meat industry in the United States — she transformed their private residence on 55th Street in Boro Park into what community members described as a 24-hour hospitality center that never turned away a guest.

Born Rivka Chazonov in the Chabad stronghold of Nevel, Russia, she fled with her family during the Nazi invasion in July 1941, eventually reaching Samarkand, Uzbekistan, which became a wartime refuge for thousands of Hasidic Jews. After marrying Rabbi Rubashkin in the chaos of postwar displacement, the couple escaped Soviet territory through Lvov and spent years in Austrian refugee camps before settling briefly in Paris in 1947. They immigrated to New York in 1953, where Rabbi Rubashkin and his partner Alter Lieberman established the kosher butcher shop on 14th Avenue that would evolve into the Rubashkin meat empire.

While her husband built the business that revolutionized kosher meat distribution across America, Rebbetzin Rubashkin managed what neighbors and former yeshiva students recall as an open-door policy that defied conventional hospitality norms. Visitors arriving at any hour — rabbis, yeshiva students, struggling families, or homeless individuals — were greeted with warmth and fed without question. According to sources familiar with the family's operations, she maintained this practice for decades, often personally ensuring that no one left hungry regardless of their ability to pay.

A particularly striking chapter in her charitable work was her management of Crown's Deli on 13th Avenue, which the family operated from the early 1960s. Though nominally a commercial restaurant, community members who frequented the establishment confirmed it functioned primarily as a covert soup kitchen. The business never turned a profit during its decades of operation, as Rebbetzin Rubashkin quietly fed anyone who walked through the door, whether or not they could afford a meal. The restaurant closed in the late 2000s.

The Rubashkin name became internationally recognized in 2017 when President Donald Trump commuted the 27-year sentence of her son, Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, who had been imprisoned on financial fraud charges related to the family's Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Iowa. His case became a cause célèbre in the Orthodox world, with prominent legal scholars and bipartisan political figures arguing the sentence was disproportionate. His release on the eve of Hanukkah sparked celebrations across the Jewish diaspora and was widely viewed as a testament to communal prayer and advocacy.

Beyond her immediate family's prominence, Rebbetzin Rubashkin's philanthropic reach extended across continents. She and her husband supported Torah institutions, funded weddings for impoverished families, and provided financial assistance to Jewish immigrants arriving from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. In many cases, recipients never learned the identity of their benefactors, as the couple insisted on anonymous giving.

She is survived by nine children, dozens of grandchildren, and great-grandchildren scattered across the United States and Israel, many of whom serve as Chabad emissaries, rabbis, and communal leaders continuing the family's tradition of public service. Her children include Gittel Goldman of Miami Beach; Sarah Balkany of Boro Park; Rachel Leah Rosenfeld of Tzfat; Rabbi Yossi Rubashkin of Crown Heights; Rabbi Moshe Rubashkin of Crown Heights; Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin of Jackson, New Jersey; Chaya'la Gurarie of Crown Heights; Rabbi Heschel Rubashkin of Postville, Iowa; and Chana Zelda Minkowitz of Crown Heights.

Her husband, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Rubashkin, predeceased her in 2020. The funeral procession took place Monday in Brooklyn, drawing thousands of mourners from across the Orthodox spectrum who came to pay respects to a woman whose quiet acts of kindness shaped an entire community's understanding of hospitality and charity.