Boris Trost, now in his 90s, was born in Ribnitz (Rîbnița), Moldova, then part of the Soviet Union. His father, a shoemaker, worked hard to support his wife and four children. Despite Soviet efforts to erase religious life, the family still tried to preserve Jewish traditions. They ensured their sons were circumcised and observed Passover and other Jewish holidays. Boris remembers eating matzah in pre-Holocaust Ribnitz.
In 1941, when Boris was not yet six years old, his family was forced to move into the crowded ghetto together with the rest of the Jews of their town. It’s hard to imagine what young Boris endured. Surrounded by hunger, fear, and the horrors of war, he witnessed the deaths of all four of his grandparents.
Beloved and Revered
It was there, in the ghetto, that Boris first observed Reb Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz, known as the Ribnitzer Rebbe.
The Ribnitzer Rebbe, remembered and revered for his asceticism, miracles, and profound acts of kindness, was born in Botoșani, Romania, in 1902, and passed away in 1995 in New York. Orphaned at a young age and raised by Rav Yehudah Aryeh Leib Frankel of Botoșani, young Chaim Zanvil learned the meaning of compassion and empathy early in life.
“People flocked to him,” recalls Boris. “He was both loved and revered.”
One particular memory from the ghetto stayed with Boris throughout his life. Respected by everyone, the rebbe was usually excused from forced labor. “I remember one day when the rebbe was also forced to work. Everyone talked about it. I think it was for only a single day, and he wasn’t forced to work again after that. He returned to his spiritual pursuits and everyone was relieved.”
Boris vividly remembers March 18, 1944, when the Nazis, retreating from the advancing Russians, broke into his home. Boris and his sister were placed against the wall. One of the Nazis pointed a gun at them, but an older Jewish man who the Nazis had dragged in fell to his knees, crying, begging the soldiers not to kill the children. Miraculously, the German opened the door and let Boris and his sister go.
To this day, he credits his survival to the merit of the Ribnitzer Rebbe.
The First Meeting
After the war, Boris enrolled in school. The children arrived barefoot and hungry. Between classes, the teacher handed out small pieces of bread. “How we looked forward to those treats!” he recalls. “We were always hungry.”
Their days revolved around standing in line for small rations of meagre staples. “It was an all-night activity,” Boris explains. “People stood in line from evening until morning just to buy a single loaf.”
With so little to eat, they felt grateful to live near the Dniester River, only a few minutes’ walk from the Jewish homes, where people caught fish and bathed in the summertime.
It was while standing in line for bread one day in 1944 that Boris first interacted with the Ribnitzer Rebbe. “I remember Reb Chaim Zanvil saw me in line and asked me to accompany him to the river,” he recalls. “We walked about ten minutes to the Dniester. It was cold, and I was surprised to see him undress and walk chest-deep into the river. He asked me to count and make sure he dipped a certain number of times. Apparently, other boys who were entrusted to count sometimes played jokes and told Reb Chaim Zanvil the wrong number of immersions. I understood it was important to count honestly, and it became my daily commitment. For about two years, we went twice a day to the river, even during the coldest winter days. I stood by the river counting, morning and evening.”
As a Soviet child, Boris could not fully understand the magnitude of the rebbe’s dedication, but his instincts told him that this was a special, holy man. These twice-daily trips to the river provided Boris with a sense of routine and a way to redirect his pain. He discovered that helping others could be healing. Realizing that Reb Chaim Zanvil continued to rely on him for assistance because of his honesty, Boris adopted truth and honesty as the leading principles of his life.
In 1954, before Boris was drafted into the Soviet Army, the Ribnitzer Rebbe came to his home and blessed him to return safely.
“Imagine how special I felt to see Reb Chaim Zanvil come to our family home to say goodbye before I was taken into the army. He said in Yiddish: ‘Fur gezunterheit, un kum tsurik gezunt — go in health and return in health.’ ”
Three years later, in 1957, when Boris returned home, the Rebbe was there to greet him.
That’s when Boris and Reb Chaim Zanvil parted ways.
Two Paths
During his army service, Boris became a licensed driver and mechanic. At a young age, he worked a dangerous job filling barrels with gasoline. He had to blow into a pipe to start the pumping process, and often the gasoline filled his mouth. He knew it wasn’t healthy, yet he needed this job to help support his parents and siblings, whose health had been shattered by the war.
Climbing from rung to rung, Boris was eventually made manager of a Ribnitz auto center, responsible for over 1,000 cars.
In 1959, Boris married Klara, and together they raised two children.
Boris believes the success of his life came from a blessing he received from Reb Chaim Zanvil.
The rebbe remained in the Soviet Union until 1970, practicing as a shochet and mohel, providing crucial services to the Jewish people even as the Soviets strictly forbade the practices.
Although Boris lost touch with the rebbe, who eventually left the Soviet Union for Israel and then New York, at one point he received an unexpected visit from the Ribnitzer Rebbe’s second wife, Rebbetzin Freida Milka Abramowitz, who had traveled to Ribnitz seeking details about the rebbe’s life. She showed Boris a photograph of the rebbe, and Boris felt proud to be able to show her where the rebbe had lived, prayed, and immersed in the river.
Coming Full Circle
Boris and his family immigrated to the United States in 2014 and settled in Philadelphia. Recently, he met Akiva Gavrilin, a Russian-speaking Jew, who offered to take him to the Ribnitzer Rebbe’s resting place in Monsey, N.Y.
In May 2026, almost 70 years after their last meeting, Boris paid his respects to Reb Chaim Zanvil once again. He was astonished to see the many notes left at the gravesite, amazed that even in America people still sought the blessings of his childhood hero.
Rabbi Gavrilin brought Boris to the synagogue near the cemetery where he did the mitzvah of wearing tefillin for the first time in his life.
Boris welcomed this special moment as another gift from Reb Chaim Zanvil.
“I always feel so much love for Reb Chaim Zanvil. “He was a kind person. People loved him because he made them feel important. I’ve had a good life. I lived with my wife for 66 years before she passed away last year. I am independent at 90 and have a beautiful family and I feel this is the blessing I merited because of my relationship with Reb Chaim Zanvil.”
May the memory of Reb Chaim Zanvil ben Moshe be a blessing for the entire Jewish nation.
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