Rav Menashe Tzvi Winkler Who Saw The Choeftz Chaim, Learned in Baranovitch, Kaminetz, And The Mir Passes on

We regret to inform you of the Petira of HaRav Menashe Tzvi Winkler ZT”L. He was around 103 years old. He was Niftar on Tuesday where he lived in Lakewood, NJ.

The Niftar was one of the last people alive to have seen the Chofetz Chaim, learned in the Mir in Poland, in Baranovitch under Reb Elchonon Wasserman HY”D, and in Kaminetz under Reb Boruch Ber Leibeowitz ZT”L.

Rav Menashe Tzvi Z”L was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and after the sudden passing of his father, he went to learn in Radin under the Chofetz Chaim. He arrived there three weeks before his Petira. He was Zoche to shake the Chofetz Chaim’s hand and receive a Bracha from him to succeed in shteiging in yeshivah with simchah, serve Hashem in good health, and merit arichus yamim.

He vividly would recall the Levaya of the Chofetz Chaim, which took place on the morning of the first day of Selichos.

He then went to learn in Baranovitch under Reb Elchonon Wasserman HY”D, followed by Kaminetz where he heard Shiurim from Reb Boruch Ber Liebowitz ZT”L and then went to the Mir in Poland, where he was friends with the late Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva, Hagaon HaRav Shmuel Berenbaum ZT”L, Hagaon HaRav Leib Bakst ZT”L (Rosh Yeshiva of Detroit) and other Yeshiva Bochrim who would later become Gedolei Olam.