A 101-year-old Hasidic family matriarch who fled Russia after World War II – and was “extremely independent till her last day” – was fatally struck by an unlicensed driver in Brooklyn, according to cops and her family.
Taibel Brod was walking home from a birthday party for a rebbe around 8:25 p.m. on April 8 when a 65-year-old man behind the wheel of a 2023 GMC Yukon SUV plowed into her as she crossed at the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and Montgomery Street in Crown Heights, authorities and relatives said.
Brod was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center, where she was initially listed in stable condition – but succumbed to her injuries less than two weeks later, on Sunday, police said.
Brod left behind five children – three sons, two daughters — and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to her loved ones.
Born in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, Brod was among many Hasidim who fled Russia on escape trains to Poland, according to an online obituary.
She met her husband, Reb Chatzkel Brod, at the Poking displaced persons camp in Germany, the obit said.
They married there and had two daughters before moving to the US in 1951, according to Brod’s relatives.
The growing Chabad family lived in Brownsville before moving to Crown Heights in the mid-1950s.
Brod lived alone after her husband died 20 years ago.
On Thursday afternoon, her Crown Heights home – a short walk from the deadly crash – was filled with grieving family members sitting shiva, a seven-day Jewish mourning ritual.
Her son, Yosef Brod, 73, who works as a building engineer in Los Angeles, said his mother spent decades feeding patients at Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center.
“For over 50 years she would feed patients,” said Yosef, as he sat next to three lit candles. “Over 50 years day in and day out.”
Yosef said his mother, who was “very active in the community,” had “goodness and kindness going for her.”
Another son echoed his sentiments.
“My mother was deeply committed to the community as a volunteer in many areas. She did a lot of praying on a daily basis,” added son, Yisroel, 69, of Israel. “A very open house and visitors would come from other countries to be in this community. She’d welcome them for a weekend, a holiday. She was a very giving person.”
The great-grandmother was walking alone – with the light in her favor – when driver Menachem Shagalow tried to make a left turn eastbound onto Montgomery Street and struck her in the crosswalk, according to police.
“She was [a] very independent woman,” said her 38-year-old grandson, also named Yisroel, of Miami, who works in business development. “Extremely independent and strong. She would take the bus by herself. She was extremely independent till her last day.”
Shagalow was arrested at the scene and charged with aggravated unlicensed operator, failure to exercise due care and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, cops said.
He was released on a desk appearance ticket and is set to be arraigned on April 28, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
Shagalow has only one prior arrest, for grand larceny in 1998, cops said.
The family declined to talk about the driver, with the elder Yisroel only saying, “It was an accident.”
Yosef said he had the chance to visit his mother in the hospital on Thursday and Friday, days before her death.
“From time to time, she did open her eyes,” he said. “I sensed that she did recognize me. The day that she passed away, my brothers and two sisters walked from Brooklyn to the hospital and she smiled at them. That was before she passed away.”
He said he looks to his faith as he grieves his mother’s death.
“I don’t know God’s mystery, how he wants the world,” Yosef said. “We are taught that everything that happens in the world is called Divine Providence.”
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