Rav Yechezkel Shraga Lipshitz-Halberstam, the Stropkover Rebbe, was born in Stropkov, Czechoslovakia, to Rav Yissochor Dov Lifshitz of Ungvar. His paternal grandfather was Rav Arye Leibush from Apta, the Yismach Tzaddik, and his maternal grandfather was the Rebbe of Stropkov, the Divrei Sholom, who was the son of the Divrei Yechezkel of Shinova, the eldest son of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. Rav Yechezkel Shraga’s first public position was as Rav of Yablonka. After a few years there, he became Dayan of Bergsas. During World War II, he was sent to Auschwitz, where his wife and five children perished. After the war, he remarried and moved to Eretz Yisrael. In 1954, upon the petira of his uncle, Rav Menachem of Stropkov, Rav Yechezkel was appointed Admor by the Sanz elders of Shinova and Stropkov. He authored Divrei Yechezkel Shraga.
