Published in Times Argus on June 20, 2012
BARRE - Rabbi Shmuel Isaac Popack was born in Barre in 1919.
He left this world on the Sabbath evening of May 25 in New York City.
His father served the Jewish community of Barre for 26 years, as the "shochet," the one who takes chickens and cows and prepares them according to Jewish dietary laws so they will be kosher.
His mother had a store in Barre selling various goods. They later moved to Crown Heights in Brooklyn to be close to the Lubavitch community and the rebbe.
Rabbi Popack's daughter is the rebbetzin of Burlington, and his grandson is the new rabbi of Brattleboro. His granddaughter with her husband runs the Chabad at UVM student activities for Jewish students. Rabbi Popack never forgot his Vermont roots and continued to inspire and support the Jewish community all over Vermont.
He was often in Burlington for a holiday or at his bungalow colony in the Catskills. He would tell stories of his early days in central Vermont: running after the kosher bread truck and pulling out loaves of bread as it drove (only once in a while) through Barre, staying at the Pavilion in Montpelier (it was a hotel back then) as the Barre and Montpelier Jewish communities would switch from year to year where high holiday services would be held. He would come down the stairs and wash up in a large trough - there were no sinks in the rooms back then.
Going to Hebrew school in Montpelier at the synagogue (same location as now) and being afraid of the rabbi there.
Rabbi Popack grew up in Barre and became a rabbi himself. He leaves his rebbetzin and many children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Vermont, New York, Quebec, Israel and all over the world to carry on his good work.
