Chaim Shneur Zalman Itkin
R' Chaim Shneur Zalman Itkin (18 Adar 5712/1952 - 17 Kislev 5767/2006) was the Rebbe's shliach in Hamilton, Canada.
Biography[edit | edit source]
Born on 18 Adar 5712/1952 in France to his father R' Meir Itkin, and was named after his grandfather.
At the age of two, his parents immigrated to Philadelphia where they lived for nearly two years, after which they established their residence in the Crown Heights neighborhood near the Rebbe's court.
He was privileged to be among the first students of the educational institution Oholei Torah Crown Heights immediately upon its establishment, and when he entered for yechidus with his father, the Rebbe remarked about him "A fartiker chossid" [= a complete chossid].
In his youth, he was among those who served Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dvorkin, the rabbi of the Crown Heights neighborhood, and in 5736/1976 he married his wife Sima Feiga of the Goldstein family.
After his marriage, he was sent by the Rebbe to New Orleans, and later they moved to serve as the Rebbe's shluchim in the city of Hamilton, Canada, where he worked extensively with students studying at the local university.
On Friday, 17 Kislev 5767/2006, he died of a heart attack, a few days before the wedding of one of his children.
Through the efforts and assistance of Rabbi Mordechai Green, one of the rabbis of Hamilton, the family was able to bypass bureaucratic procedures, and the body was flown that same day to New York, where his funeral was held on Friday afternoon, and he was buried in the Montefiore Cemetery in the Agudas Chasidei Chabad section.