Rabbi Levi Wolosow, 43, the Quintessential Chabad Rabbi

Rabbi Levi Wolosow, who passed away suddenly on Feb. 3 (5 Shevat) at the age of 43, represented the very best of what a Chabad rabbi can and should be. Members of the community he served for 18 years recall that he was kind, learned, patient, outgoing, sincere and humble.

“He taught me how to reach out to people,” says Mitch Halpert, who would sit near the rabbi at services in their Manalapan, N.J., synagogue. “Everyone knew him and everyone loved him. He would tell everyone, ‘just do a little bit more,’ and they would.”

The atmosphere of Chabad outreach work is something Wolosow grew up with. The second of 12 children, Levi Yitzchak Wolosow was born in 1981 and raised in Sharon, Mass., where his parents, Rabbi Chaim and Sara Wolosow, have served as Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries since 1980. After his marriage to Chana Chazanow in 2006, the couple settled in Manalapan, where her parents, Rabbi Boruch and Tova Chazanow direct Chabad of Western Monmouth County.

The younger couple threw themselves into every aspect of the Chabad center, with a particular emphasis on Jewish education.

“He loved learning and was very learned, but he still spent a lot of time preparing for his classes,” says Halpert, who treasures the flowcharts and handouts that Wolosow would make and distribute to participants in his lectures. “One of the most powerful things was seeing how he would learn with his own children, so they’d grow up to be like him.”

Rabbi Shmaya Galperin, who directs a Chabad center in nearby Holmdel, N.J., says Wolosow stood out in his near-constant activity. “He was always happy and always doing something—koshering a kitchen, putting up mezuzahs in someone’s home, arranging a lecture, a Shabbaton, visiting someone who was sick.”

Wolosow helping his eldest son, Nochum, lay tefillin for the first time.

Chabad of Western Monmouth County

For many in the community, he is best known for Project Rosh—a High Holiday service for as many as 500 people who were, for whatever reason, not inclined to attend traditional synagogue services. “People loved it,” says Halpert. “They would not go anywhere else.”

Yet Wolosow wasn’t swayed by the crowds and focused on each individual, whether it was a prospective bar mitzvah student or a retiree, going the extra mile for everyone. “He told me I should have a giant menorah on my lawn,” says Halpert, “and he actually delivered it to my house, set it up and plugged it in for me.”

His kindness was personal as it was real. When two children in the community were orphaned from both parents, the Wolosows adopted them as their own, raising them alongside their six biological children.

The rabbi collapsed on Monday during a family trip, and passed away later that day. Some 1,000 mourners made the trek to Brooklyn for Wolosow’s funeral, traveling from the New Jersey town he called home and all over North America, silently bidding farewell to a father and community leader taken in his prime.

In addition to his parents and wife, he leaves behind his children: Nochum Wolosow, Dov Wolosow, Mendel Wolosow, Tzipa Wolosow, Miriam Wolosow, Uziel Wolosow, Naomi Horowitz and Tani Horowitz.

He is also survived by siblings: Rivky Horowitz (Canton, Mass.); Goldie Plotkin (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Mimi Wilhelm (Portland, Ore.); Pasi Wolosow (Toronto); Mushkie Lowenthal (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Chanie Minkowitz (Sharon, Mass.); Leibel Wolosow (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Mendy Wolosow (Hallandale, Fla.); Berri Wolosow (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Zalmi Wolosow (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Shmuly Wolosow (Pittsburgh, Pa.).

A fund has been set up to aid Wolosow’s grieving family. To contribute click here.

Wolosow is remembered by community members as being kind, learned, patient, outgoing, sincere and humble.

Chabad of Western Monmouth County

Wolosow, left, with his brothers on a “brothers trip” in December of 2024.

Chabad of Western Monmouth County