Rochel Pinson, 102, Dies After Pioneering Chabad Education in North Africa

Overview

• She died on Tuesday, February 3, 2026 (16 Shevat 5786), at the age of 102.
• With her husband, Rabbi Nissan Pinson, she helped establish Jewish schools and communal institutions in Tunisia, including Ohr HaTorah and Oholei Yosef Yitzchak High School, growing enrollment from about 33 students to more than 300.
• Born in Leningrad in 1928, she came of age under Stalinist repression as her family sheltered Rabbi Elchonon Morozov, and her father, Rabbi Yitzchok Raskin, was arrested in 1938 and later executed.
• Her family escaped Leningrad on the last train before the Nazi siege and survived wartime displacement across Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
• Their Tunis years involved persistent threats that included anti-Jewish riots, government surveillance, a false espionage accusation against her husband, and periods of armed protection for the school and synagogue.