JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi Tuvia Bloy, a senior Chabad rabbi, longtime educator and influential author who spent decades leading the Chabad community in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood, has died at the age of 90.

His death comes just weeks after the passing of his wife, Rebbetzin Chana Frummet Bloy, who died following a prolonged illness while the couple was hospitalized.

Born in Jerusalem in 1936, Bloy came from a prominent religious family. His father, Rabbi Baruch Yehuda Bloy, was a leader in the Poalei Agudat Yisrael movement, while his grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Bloy, was one of the most prominent Agudat Yisrael figures in pre-state Israel.

He studied at Jerusalem’s Etz Chaim Talmud Torah and Yeshiva, where he became known as an outstanding student. During his youth, he developed a close connection to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and later became a devoted follower of Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

In 1966, Bloy was appointed director-general of Tzeirei Agudat Chabad, the movement’s youth and outreach organization in Israel. Over the next two decades, he helped oversee educational initiatives, public events and outreach programs throughout the country. In 1972, he was selected to serve on a special committee established by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to promote the expansion of Torah and educational institutions in Israel and abroad.

Bloy is perhaps best known for his more than four decades as principal of the Beit Chana Seminary in Jerusalem, one of Chabad’s leading educational institutions for women. Appointed in 1975, he guided the school for more than 40 years, overseeing the education of thousands of students from Israel and around the world.

Alongside his educational work, Bloy served for decades as rabbi of the Chabad community in Neve Yaakov, where he led synagogue life, delivered Torah lectures, provided halachic guidance and became a trusted adviser to generations of families.

He was also widely recognized as one of Chabad’s leading writers and public intellectuals. A member of the founding editorial board of the weekly Kfar Chabad newspaper, established in 1980, Bloy authored hundreds of articles and essays on Chassidic philosophy, Jewish law and contemporary religious issues.

His writings and lectures made him a prominent voice within the Chabad movement, particularly on questions of Jewish education, outreach and religious thought.

In recent months, Bloy’s health deteriorated, prompting widespread prayers for his recovery across the Chabad community in Israel and abroad.

He is survived by a large family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Among them are Rabbi Peretz Uriel Bloy, a member of the administration of Beit Chana Seminary; Rabbi Mordechai Menashe Laufer, a Chabad emissary and Torah author in Ashdod; and educator Rabbi Aharon Halperin of Kfar Chabad.

His funeral is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Jerusalem. The procession will depart from Shamgar Funeral Home before continuing to the Chabad section of the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery, where he will be buried beside his wife.