Rabbi Dovid Bornstein of Sochaczew

Rabbi Dovid ben Shmuel Bornstein of Sochaczew – the "Chasdei Dovid" – perished in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Rebbe of Sochaczew, son of Rebbe Shmuel Bornstein - the "Chasdei Dovid" (1876-1942).

The new Rebbe moved the residence of his "court" to Pabianice, near Lodz. He also founded a network of yeshivas called "Beis Avraham" (in memory of his grandfather, the Avnei Nezer) in Lodz, Warsaw, and other Polish cities. He was an active member of the Agudath Israel party, served on the Council of Torah Sages, and was known as one of the leading figures of his generation.

He constantly urged his chassidim to emigrate to Palestine. The Rebbe admitted that he himself would have gladly moved there, were it not for the thousands of chassidim in Poland who depended on his leadership.

He himself visited Palestine in 1924 and 1925 together with his brother, Chanoch Henech. The Rebbe invested considerable sums of money to sustain the chassidim living in Palestine, but his plans were disrupted by the economic crisis that struck Poland shortly after his second return. In the end, he lost his rights to the land in Palestine, as well as all the money he had invested in it.

On Rosh Hashanah of 1939, the German Nazis invaded Lodz. Jews were sent to forced labor. The Germans found the Rebbe in his home, beat him, cut off part of his beard, and then forced him to clean the streets.

The Rebbe then went into hiding in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he lived incognito. Nevertheless, his home became a center of Torah study, drawing many visitors - even under the conditions of the ghetto, the Rebbe of Sochaczew continued to teach students. The Rebbe worked in several factories, his last workplace being the Schultz shoe factory, where many other chassidic Rebbes and prominent rabbis were also put to labor. Since the Nazis could seize him at any moment, he constantly moved from place to place. Soon after the deportations began, the Rebbe died of heart failure on 17 November 1942.

The Rebbe's wife, sons, daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren were all murdered by the Nazis in the spring of 1943. In addition, nearly all of the Rebbe's manuscripts were destroyed.