Rabbi Pinchas Eliyahu Waldstein, one of the most prominent yeshiva students in the southern Israeli town of Yeruham, passed away on Friday at Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva after contracting coronavirus.
He was 35 years old.
Rabbi Waldstein had been hospitalized in the coronavirus ward at Soroka for the past several weeks. His condition deteriorated and he was anesthetized and placed on a respirator before succumbing to the virus.
Rabbi Waldstein, who had studied at the Beit Meir Yeshiva in Bnei Brak as a teenager, set up a special yeshiva at the start of the pandemic at which Sephardi students who did not return to their own yeshivas were integrated.
"Everything was on his own initiative, he established a special beit midrash for the boys and kept in touch with the parents and the yeshivas where the boys had studied," one of his acquaintances told the Behadrei Haredim website on Friday.
Rabbi Waldstein is survived by his parents, wife, and seven children. Funeral details have yet to be announced.
