My Dear Friend and Chavrusa R’ Yonah Pruss

By R’ Getzel Itzinger – London, England

For the last few days, myself, my family and our community have been in a daze, as we grapple with the overwhelming shock of what to us is completely unimaginable – the absence of R’ Yonah Pruss in our lives.

Though we knew for a while that R’ Yonah had a terrible illness r”l, considering that he is no longer with us is so unthinkable because to our minds he is synonymous with life.

As his morning Chavrusa for over 30 years, I was a constant witness to his boundless passion for Chassidus and the Rebbe. It was like he could never get enough. Every time he opened a Ma’amer, or told a story, or repeated something he had heard or remembered, it was like he had just discovered it for the first time – “Kemayim Karim Lenefesh Ayefa”. He was a brilliant, highly effective person, and kept a tight schedule, and carried heavy financial Achrayus for Yiddishkeit in the Former Soviet Union, yet at the same time his extraordinarily powerful mind and one-of-a-kind imagination were constantly preoccupied with his most precious concern, the Rebbe’s holy Maamarim.

I remember once, R’ Aharon Leizer Tzeitlin A”H came to fundraise in London, where he had planned to do his usual rounds amongst Anash. In the morning, he joined R’ Yonah and myself in learning a Ma’amer. As we were learning, R’ Yonah pulled out his phone and started calling people – “come over to my house”. It wound up as a full day Farbrengen, with people coming and going, taking a break from work for a few minutes of inspiration. When I pushed back on saying Lechaim because I had to drive out of town that day for a business appointment, he again took out his phone and within minutes, a private driver of one of his connections was waiting outside in a high-end car. His feet may have been firmly placed on the ground, navigating sophisticated social circles in London as part of his work with Chabad of Ukraine, yet his head towered above us, his passionate heart always on fire, still a child growing up at the Rebbe’s feet. Needless to say, that was R’ Aharon Laizer’s most successful fundraising trip to London.

His unimaginable absence leaves a giant, gaping hole in mine and my family’s hearts and the hearts of our community, that can never be replaced by anyone or anything. As any consolation, he has a large archive online of his Shiurim in Chassidus, and I would encourage everyone to explore them and benefit from the depth and clarity I was privy to every morning. He also leaves behind his dear family, his wife and ten children, who all carry his trademark Chayus and devotion. Our families were always very close, with many of his children being classmates of mine, and this shock has rattled everyone deeply and we are all searching for comfort and to make meaning of this unthinkable situation.

Over the last few days, my children have been sharing memories on the family WhatsApp group. One of them posted a line from Yonah in his legendary unparalleled humor.

It was a Simchas Torah Farbrengen, and Yonah suggested a fundraising idea for the Shul that “Rabbi Hertz will give a hundred pounds, and Freddy Hager will give a thousand pounds, this way we’ll have a hundred thousand pounds.” However much to our chagrin, the math that works on Simchas Torah doesn’t always work on a regular day.

The least we can do in the wake of this excruciating event is to assist his family with the unexpected financial burden resulting from his untimely absence.

May Hashem find a way to comfort us all and especially his dear family, and may we be reunited immediately with the coming of Moshiach, “umacha hashem dimah me’al kol panim.”

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Yona leaves behind his wife, Chana, ten children, in laws, and grandchildren.
As we mourn this tragedy, we ask that you contribute generously to help his family cope with this loss.

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