Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam - Kiryat Sanz, Netanya

Kiryat Sanz, Netanya

The Rebbe's decision to move to the United States was not a permanent one. Throughout his travails in the Holocaust, he always had in mind the goal of settling in Israel. Toward that end, he established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in the beachside city of Netanya in 1956. In so doing, he was the first Rebbe to establish a Haredi neighborhood in an Israeli development town. Over the next few years, he raised money for the establishment of key institutions to serve this neighborhood, including girls' and boys' schools and yeshivas, an orphanage, and an old-age home.

The Rebbe moved permanently to Israel in 1960, settling in Netanya and directing both the community there and in Williamsburg. He also founded battei medrash and schools in other cities in Israel, and established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood of Jerusalem as well.

In 1968 he founded yet another Sanz community in Union City, New Jersey, and afterwards divided his time between that community and his residence in Netanya.