It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rav Yosef Chaim Lieberman zt”l of Lakewood, formerly of Boro Park, who was niftar at the age of 98.

A remarkable survivor of the Churban Europe and a living link to the great dor of prewar Torah Jewry, Rav Yosef Chaim endured hunger, concentration camps, and unimaginable upheaval as a young child in Antwerp during the Holocaust, while clinging fiercely to Torah umitzvos under the harshest conditions.

Even as refugee children escaping war-torn Europe, the Lieberman siblings became known for their uncompromising insistence on kashrus and maintaining Yiddishkeit wherever they went.

After surviving the war years in Europe, Rav Yosef Chaim arrived in America as part of the famed Kindertransport aboard the Nyassa. He learned in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchok Hutner zt”l, spending Yomim Tovim in the rosh yeshiva‘s home and maintaining a close lifelong kesher to the yeshiva.

He later learned for seven years in Lakewood under Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l, with whom he shared a uniquely close kesher, and became close friends and chavrusos with Rav Dov Schwartzman zt”l for many years. His older brother was the noted talmid chochom Rav Dovid Moshe Lieberman zt”l, prominent rov in Antwerp.

Already as a bochur, Rav Yosef Chaim received semichah from Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l — something Rav Moshe rarely granted to younger talmidim.

For close to fifty years, Rav Yosef Chaim resided in Boro Park, where he was among the founding members of the Lakewood Minyan.

For the last twenty years, he lived in Lakewood, where he became a fixture at Bais Medrash Kol Shimshon, spending his days immersed in learning with remarkable hasmadah and consistency well into his later years.

Rav Yosef Chaim was zocheh to raise a family of eleven children, all bnei and bnos Torah, continuing the legacy of Torah and emunah that defined his life.

Yehi zichro baruch.