Last update - 00:00 13/02/2008
Argentine Jews mourn car crash death of prominent rabbi, aged 37
By Lisa Zilberpriver
Prominent Buenos Aires rabbi Ariel Korob, 37, was killed in a car accident Sunday, rocking Argentina's Jewish community. The rabbi's wife and children also sustained injuries in the crash.
Korob headed the Gran Templo Paso synagogue in Buenos Aires. He was active in interfaith debates and recently championed a bill allowing newly-converted Jews' burial in Jewish cemeteries. The Jewish Center passed the bill last Friday, two days before Korob's death.
Born in Afula, in Israel's north, Korob was ordained in Argentina in 2000. He married Irene Wolkostawski the same year, and fathered three children: Lautaro, Meirab and Naamá.
A member of the Jewish Foundation (Fundacion Judaica), and taught Bible and Halakha (Jewish Law) at the conservative Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano, as well as Hebrew at the Higher Evangelical Institute on Theological Studies (ISEDET).
"As much for his teachings as for his human compassion, Ariel's physical absence obliges us to continue his legacy of commitment to just and humanitarian causes," said a statement in Spanish on the Gran Templo Paso's Web site.
Rabbi Korob was laid out at Gran Templo Paso on Tuesday and will be buried Wednesday at the Tablada Jewish cemetery.
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