ותחי רוח אמשינאוו ד'בארא פארק - finally getting around to finishing this

Amshinov in Boro Park - what? you never heard of it? It does exist, squeezed in between the big Bais Yaakov/Bobov45 building and the Korn's bakery trucks blocking 15th Avenue - has sprung to life again! This past Shabbos, Parshas Shelach in America, they had the largest crowd ever to pack in to the confines of shtiebel.

Here's how I see it, and correct me if I'm wrong. Some 30 years ago I once walked into the tish of Reb Itzikel of Amshinov, in his apartment above the shul. If there were 25 people there it would be an exaggeration. He said Torah for a few seconds and the oylem was content with that.

The next time I was there was 20 years later, for a family simcha. I have no recollection of the then-Amshinover Rebbe. He passed away a few months ago - a victim of coronavirus.

Reb Itzikel, son of Reb Yosef (d. 5696/1936), was a nephew of Reb Shime'le of Amshinov, who passed away on the 19th of Av, 5714/1954. Reb Shime'le's son Reb Meir went up to Eretz Yisroel with his father's aron and stayed there. He passed away in 1976. The Current Amshinover Rebbe in Bayit VeGan is a grandson of Reb Meir. His mother was a daughter of Reb Meir. Reb Chaim Milikovski, father of the Amshinover Rebbe, was a Mirrel Talmid who escaped to Shanghai, as did the Amshinover Rebbe. 

The Rest is history.  

The young Rebbe, Reb Menachem Kalish, a grandson of Rav Eliyahu Sternbuch of Antwerp, is also a Vizhnitzer eynikel. Rav Sternbuch was a son-in-law of Reb Boruch of Seret-Vizhnitz, later in Haifa. Those in the know foresee a great and bright future for the Amshinovers of Boro Park. The young Rebbe, a son-in-law of the previous Zutchker Rebbe of Bnei Brak, had been living in Eretz Yisroel, and even started his own independent chassidishe yeshiva last Elul, but is expected to relocate to Boro Park.

I did hear, from my Chabad sources, that the current Rebbe - while a talmid in Rachmistrivka Yeshiva in Yerushalayim - learned Chassidus Chabad with a Lubavitcher mashpia.

As it should be done.