Brooke, Shneur-Zalman
Son of Yisrael and Rivka and grandson of Rav Yitzhak Gerstenkorn, the founder of Bnei Brak and its first mayor, and of Rabbi Shaul Baruch, the founder and head of the Chabad Yeshiva in Rishon Letzion, the father of one of the most important Chassidim of the Chabad, named his son after the Tanya, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. He was born on the 16th of Kislev 5711 (16.11.1951) in Bnei Brak. He studied at the “Talmud Torah” in Bnei Brak, at the Chabad Yeshiva in Rishon Letzion and spent a year in the Kfar Habad vocational school. He was a consistent young man and stuck to his goal. When he was 16, he stopped studying at Yeshivah and learned how to operate a tractor, thinking that in this way he could do for the security and fortification of the state. It was clear to him that because of a handicap in his leg he would not be able to enlist in the army, but despite his handicap, he was a cheerful and lively young man. When he was 17, he went down to the Suez Canal and worked as a civil society contractor. In so doing, he contributed to the people’s security effort and to the defense of his country. He did not find his presence in the canal area in a front position. On June 26, 1970, he fell in the course of his mission, from the shelling of the enemy in the area of the Suez Canal. He was laid to rest in the cemetery in Bnei Brak.
