Eliezer Zusia Portugal

Eliezer Zusia Portugal (17 October 1898–18 August 1982), the first Skulener Rebbe, was revered by his followers in Russia, Romania, Israel, and the United States for his personal warmth and his care for hundreds of Jewish youth and war orphans, whom he personally adopted as his own children. He established the Skulener dynasty in America in the 1960s. His only biological son, Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom Portugal, succeeded him as Rebbe.

Portugal did not become a Hasidic Rebbe until he was well into his sixties. His first public position was as Rabbi of the Bessarabian town of Sculeni (Yiddish: Skulen), his birthplace. He was appointed to this position at the age of 17 after the death of his father, Rabbi Yisroel Avrohom, who was the town's rabbi.

Portugal was successful in his dealings with both young and old community members in Skulen (present-day Moldova) due to his unusual warmth and compassion for others. He was especially effective in reaching Jewish youth, who were rapidly assimilating and throwing off mitzvah observance. Rather than give up on them, he engaged them with love and intellectual discussions about the deeper meaning and importance of Judaism, which convinced many to re-embrace their heritage.

When the Sadigerer Rebbe, Mordechai Sholom Yosef Friedman, visited Skulen and saw Portugal's achievements, he urged him to move to the much larger city of Czernowitz, Bukovina. Although Czernowitz's Jewish population numbered approximately 21,500 Jews out of a total population of 68,400, this city too was suffering rampant assimilation. Together with the nearby Chassidic courts of Sadigura, Vizhnitz and Boyan, the religious Jews of Czernowitz appointed Portugal as their chief rabbi to help preserve what they could.

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