Today, 2/21/12 is my great-grandfather’s Yahrzeit, the 29th of Shevat.  Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Morgenstern.  He was the Lukovar Rebbe, born in 1858 and passed away on the 29th of Shevat 1920, 92 years ago.  I made a Siyum on Mesectas Archin.  Before the Siyum I read about the life of the Lukover Rebbe.  The Sandek at his Bris was the Kotzker Rebbe.   The Lukover Rebbe soaked in the Chassidus of his grandfather, Reb Dovid and then his father, Rabbi Chaim Yisroel, known as the Pilover Rebbe.  After the Pilover Rebbe passed away in 1906, some of the Chassidim followed Reb Tzvi Hersh Morgenstern to Lukav.   I also read about the tragic end of the Lukover Rebbe’s grandson, Reb Menachem Mendel Morgenstern who was Rebbe in Wlodovia.  It was 1942 and the Gestapo rounded up the children in the courtyard of the Shul.  The Rebbe was dressed in his Shabbos clothes and stood among the children telling them stories and giving them comfort.  The gestapo soldier told the Rebbe that the Rebbe can leave.  The Rebbe said no and stayed with the kids as they went on their tragic end to Sorbidor.

Attending the Siyum as Meir Chase, Moshe Roberts, Sholem and Eli Morgenstern, Shabsi S., Ephraim Chase, Ari Pancer, Rabbi Elliot Weinschneider, and Mordy Siegal.  Of course we had herring and crackers.