Yechezkel Shraga Wagshal owned an appliance store in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, N.Y., where he would study Torah between customers. A Holocaust survivor born in Eastern Europe, he passed away on April 30 as a result of complications due to COVID-19.

Wagshal was born in Lanzut, Poland, a town that in its heyday was 30 percent Jewish. It was decimated by the Nazis during World War II and the Holocaust, and so many from its community did not survive.

Wagshal managed to escape to Sibiu, Romania, where he lived out the war together with the legendary Pshevorsker Rebbe—Rabbi Yaakov “Yankele” Leiser, of the Pshevorsk Chassidic dynasty.

After 1945, Wagshal immigrated to the United States, where he married and built a family.

He maintained close ties with several Chassidic Rebbes, including the Rebbes of Satmar, Stutchin and Rachmastrivka, but beyond all else, remained a devoted follower of the Koloshitz Rebbe.

Wagshal was one of the elder congregants at Borough Park’s Belz Chassidic synagogue, where he was accorded great respect.

He is survived by extended family.

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