YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of HaRav Avrohom Korf, the pioneering Head Shliach of Chabad in Florida and a pillar of Jewish life in the state for more than six decades. He was 92. Born in 5693 (1932) in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Rabbi Korf fled with his family to Samarkand during World War II, eventually escaping the Soviet Union in 1947 alongside Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, the Rebbe’s mother. After a brief stay in the Poking refugee camp and learning in the Brunoy Yeshiva in France, he came to 770 Eastern Parkway in 1952 . In the wake of the tragic Kfar Chabad massacre, the Rebbe dispatched Rabbi Korf to Eretz Yisrael to bolster the Chassidim there. Later, he married Rivka Eichenbaum — among the last couples whose chuppah was officiated by the Rebbe himself. In 1961, Rabbi Korf and his wife moved to Miami Beach on the Rebbe’s shlichus, then a spiritual desert with only a handful of shuls and mikvahs. With tenacity, vision, and unwavering emunah, the Korfs laid the foundations of what would become a flourishing network of Chabad institutions across the state. In 1966, they founded Landow Yeshiva with just six students — a small beginning that would eventually blossom into the Lubavitch Educational Center, now home to some 2,500 students spanning preschool through kollel. Despite language barriers, financial constraints, and minimal infrastructure, Rabbi Korf never wavered. In one memorable chapter, when cholov Yisroel milk was unavailable, he personally milked cows on Florida farms to make it happen. Today, Florida is home to over 400 Chabad shluchim in 230+ locations, serving a Jewish population of roughly 750,000 — the third largest in the United States. That growth, in no small part, stems from the foundations Rabbi Korf laid decades ago. He was predeceased by his wife Rivka and is survived by a large family of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, many of whom continue his shlichus across Florida and beyond. A levaya took place at Chabad Headquarters in Miami on Tuesday morning, with another scheduled for 3 PM at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, with kevurah following at the Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens at 4 PM. Baruch Dayan HaEmes. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)