The current Klauzenburger dynasty was founded by Harav Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam Zatzal, who was known as the Klauzenburger Rebbe. The Rebbe’s paternal great-grandfather was Harav Chaim of Sanz (the Divrei Chaim), founder of the Sanz Chasidishe dynasty and one of the leading poiskim of his generation. The Rebbe’s maternal grandfather was the Yeitev Lev of Sighet, Reb Zalman Leib Teitelbaum.

Prior to World War II, a great number of outstanding Talmudical schools graced the vibrant Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. After the Holocaust, almost none of these institutions remained standing. New schools were developed in the United States, Israel and Western Europe, thus keeping the dynamic tradition of Jewish scholarship alive. Yeshivas Sanz Klauzenburg is one such link in this chain of scholarship, seeking to pass on the rich heritage of Talmudic scholarship, Chasidus, and Jewish philosophy.

During the Holocaust, though almost the entire Klauzenburg community was destroyed, the Rebbe and a small percent of his Chasidim survived. When the Rebbe looked back at what had taken place in Europe, he saw that hundreds of Gedoilei Torah, Rabbunim and Dayunim perished, and was determined to rebuild the Torah that was lost.

In 1947, the Rebbe immigrated to America and established his court in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The Rebbe established many Yeshiva Ketanos (Mesivta High Schools) as well as institutions of higher learning. In this way, the Rebbe began to restore Torah scholarship on American soil.

In 1957, he founded the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in Netanya, Israel. Over the next few years, he established a school for boys, a school for girls, and Yeshivos. He also set up an old-age home and a hospital to serve the needs of the greater Netanya community. The Rebbe moved to Kiryat Sanz in 1960. In 1968, he founded yet another Sanz community in Union City, New Jersey. Subsequently, he divided his time between Union City and his main residence in Netanya. The Rebbe passed away on June 18, 1994, and was buried in Netanya.

The Klauzenburger Rebbe planted in Yeshivas Sanz Klauzenburg an incredible combination of mesiras nefesh for learning day and night, as well as an all-encompassing harbotzas hatorah. The derech hachinuch found in Klauzenburg is quite unique. It is as though the Rebbe left his Chasidim with an entire Shilchan Aruch on how to be mechanech future generations. The very basic principal of that mesorah is that the essence of the Klauzenburg chasidis is Torah, and thus the iker chinich is built on Torah.

Torah was such a central goal that it became the main priority of the Klauzenburger Rebbe Zatzal. A major part of his day was set aside to learn Torah and give Shiurim. The Rebbe believed that there is no mitzvah that can be fulfilled properly without the limud hatorah beforehand as a preparation for fulfilling the mitzvah, and therefore, the Rebbe saw Torah as a hachuna (preparation) for what he did, and anything anyone would do.

The Rebbe established new, creative programs for the comprehensive in-depth study of the Talmud. This included the widely known Mifal HaShas program, in which participants  are required to master 30 blatt of Gemora, and are tested on their learning each month.

While the Rebbe had a very powerful personality regarding all matters of Yidishkeit, when it came to limud hatorah, he would not compromise. This was definitely the case with the Mifal HaShas program, which the Rebbe founded to encourage the widespread learning of bekius. At the time, the idea of continuous testing of adult Bnai Torah was far from a common practice. Years later however, these and other ideas of the Rebbe became widely accepted within Yeshivas and kolelim.

With this brief history, we can better understand who the Klauzenburger Rebbe was and what he sought to accomplish in his Yeshiva