(JTA) — A Chabad rabbi who was severely beaten six months ago at a train station in the western Ukrainian city of Zhitomir has died.
Rabbi Mendel Deitsch was 64. He died in Israel where he was airlifted and treated following the attack days after Rosh Hashanah, which he spent in the Ukrainian town of Haditch, the resting place of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad-Lubavitch. He was robbed of his cell phone and money and beaten at the train station, and was not discovered until hours later, suffering from multiple head injuries and brain trauma.
Two men and two women were arrested for the assault two weeks later.
Deitsch was a longtime Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in France and later served in Israel.
He had been in a coma since the attack at Tel Hashomer hospital in Ramat Gan, Israel, and never regained consciousness, according to Chabad.org.
He is survived by his wife and 11 children, and three brothers.
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