Rabbi Naftali Hertz Cukier z”l
It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rabbi Naftali Hertz Cukier z”l, a beloved longtime resident of Lakewood, NJ, and a leading figure in the spiritual revival of Russian Jewry.
As the leader of the extraordinary Dacha program and director of the Lakewood chapter of Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel, Rabbi Cukier devoted his life to rekindling the flame of Yiddishkeit in souls long deprived of its warmth.
Rabbi Cukier’s own foundations in Torah were laid in the great yeshivos where he immersed himself in learning with the same passion he would later ignite in others.
He first learned at the Yeshiva of Eastern Parkway, where he became a devoted talmid of Rav Mottel Weinberg zt”l. Rabbi Cukier maintained a close kesher with Rav Weinberg for decades, cherishing his guidance and drawing strength from that bond throughout his life. The imprint of those formative years — the rigor in learning, the clarity of thought, and the sincerity in avodas Hashem — never left him.
He later continued his aliyah at Bais Medrash Govoah in Lakewood, where he learned under the rosh yeshiva, Rav Shnuer Kotler. Rabbi Cukier remained a loyal talmid of the yeshiva and a familiar, beloved presence in its batei medrash for more than fifty years.
For decades, Rabbi Cukier stood at the helm of the Dacha, a biannual three-week seminar that became a lifeline for unaffiliated Russian Jews from across the former Soviet Union. In a world often enamored with programming gimmicks and superficial inspiration, the Dacha was the opposite: a “no-shtick, no gimmick” immersion in pure limud haTorah. From early morning until late at night, the air vibrated with shiurim, chavrusah learning, and the steady hum of Torah study. It was the koach of unadulterated Torah itself — ha’or shebo machziro lamutav — that transformed participants, drawing them back again and again, until many progressed to advanced yeshivos, kollelim, and lives of authentic mitzvah observance.The remarkable and enduring success of the Dacha was rooted in Rabbi Cukier’s boundless mesirus nefesh. With unwavering dedication, he spearheaded this spiritual revolution together with a devoted team of shluchim who infused the program with positivity, warmth, and exuberance, all, incredibly, at their own expense. To Rabbi Cukier, this was not a project. It was a sacred mission.
The seeds of this movement were planted by Rabbi Mordechai Neustadt zt”l, who courageously gathered the first group of Refuseniks under clandestine and dangerous conditions for a hidden seminar behind the Iron Curtain. It was Rabbi Neustadt who urged Rabbi Cukier to assume leadership, entrusting him with the future of this fragile yet luminous beginning. Under Rabbi Cukier’s stewardship, what began in secrecy blossomed into a vibrant engine of Torah growth whose impact continues to reverberate throughout Russia and the broader Jewish world.
Every Dacha graduate who went on to build a Torah home, to raise children in the ways of Torah and mitzvos, and to produce generations committed to Yiddishkeit stands as an everlasting zechus for the neshamah of Rabbi Cukier. His legacy is not measured in accolades, but in living, breathing families shaped by his devotion.
For those who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s, the plight of Russian Jewry was a rallying cry that united Jews across the spectrum. Rallies filled city streets. Protests and advocacy campaigns captured headlines. Daring missions were carried out behind the Iron Curtain. For many secular Jews, the struggle mirrored the civil rights movement: a moral cause of freedom and dignity.
But when communism fell in 1991, it became clear that for the frum world, the real battle had only just begun. Political liberation was not spiritual rebirth. Seventy years of enforced atheism had left a vacuum where open Yiddishkeit once flourished. There were Jews who had never tasted Torah, who thirsted for mitzvos like wanderers in a desert longing for water.
The Vaad’s efforts predated the fall of communism. In 1988, Rabbi Cukier himself traveled to the USSR on a perilous mission. Constantly shadowed by the KGB, forced into clandestine meetings, and navigating an atmosphere thick with suspicion, he and his colleagues persevered in their attempts to bring Torah to those yearning for it. Upon returning to Lakewood, Rabbi Cukier organized a parlor meeting that laid the foundation for the Lakewood chapter of the Vaad. In those early years, shluchim were dispatched from Lakewood to sustain the underground work. Rav Sholom Kamenetzky and Rav Chaim Finkel were among the early volunteers who answered the call.
With the collapse of the Iron Curtain, a new chapter began. No longer confined to secrecy, the Vaad could operate openly. Rabbi Cukier, then a full-time kollel yungerman, took upon himself the enormous task of organizing a summer retreat for those hungry to learn. That program — which would evolve into the Dacha — became a beacon of hope. Tens of American bochurim and girls sacrificed their vacations year after year to teach fellow Yidden about Yiddishkeit. In the early years, as many as 700 participants would pass through the camp over the course of an eight-week summer.
Based outside Moscow, the camp drew Jews from across the vast expanse of the former Soviet Union, some traveling from as far as Ukraine. The stated goal was not kiruv in the conventional sense. It was simply to learn Torah. And yet, in the steady glow of limud haTorah, lives were transformed. Communication was often halting — participants knew little English or Hebrew — but the will to learn was fierce. Devorim hayotzim min halev penetrated directly to the heart.
Rabbi Cukier once reflected with quiet awe: “The sippuk you get when you see the unbelievable products that have come out of our program is unmatched. There are tens of bnei Torah who have built real Yiddishe homes all over the world and advanced in their learning to the point where they are true talmidei chachomim. We have a yungerman who is a rosh chaburah in the Mir, a boki b’Shas b’iyun. He learns something like 17 hours a day. There are many alumni who have returned to Russia and started yeshivos and kollelim.”
Those words were not spoken just with pride, but with gratitude — gratitude to see barren soil transformed into flourishing gardens of Torah.
Rabbi Cukier is survived by his devoted wife, Mrs. Pessie Cukier; his sister, Mrs. Hinda Ben-Ezra; his children, Mrs. Blima Prag, Mrs. Feiga Gross, Mrs. Chana Brunner, Mrs. Silky Resnicoff, Mrs. Devora Landsman, Reb Yossi Cukier, Reb Dovid Cukier, Reb Aharon Cukier, Reb Avrohom Yehuda Cukier, and Reb Yitzchok Cukier; and numerous grandchildren who carry forward his legacy.
The levayah will take place tonight at 10 p.m. at Bais Medrash Govoah’s Bendheim (Yoshon) Bais Medrash on Seventh Street in Lakewood, NJ.
With Rabbi Cukier’s passing, a giant of quiet heroism has departed this world. Yet, his impact lives on in every daf learned by a former Dacha participant, in every Shabbos table illuminated by families he inspired, and in every child raised in the light of Torah because one man refused to let a generation remain in darkness.
Yehi zichro boruch.
{Matzav.com}