Rabbi Sholom Lipskar, who transformed Miami and helped Jews in prison, dies at 78

Rabbi Sholom B. Lipskar, a charismatic and visionary figure in the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement who helped transform South Florida into a vibrant center of Jewish life and founded a national organization that supports Jews in prison and the military, died on May 3 in Miami. He was 78.

The cause of his death, in a hospital, was heart failure, said Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesperson for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Lipskar, the son of Soviet exiles who smuggled him across the border in a suitcase, was sent to Miami in 1969 by Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher rebbe and one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.

At the time, the Jewish community in Miami consisted primarily of affluent retirees who were not particularly religious. The city also st