Samuel Bloch, the Chassid who entered on a hunger fast, on Yom Kippur, sixteen days ago, as an ultimatum to God to send a Messiah, was found dead yesterday on the threshold of the synagogue which he attended in the village of Zloczow, near Lemberg, where he lived.
How he made his way to the synagogue no one knows. On Monday night he was removed to a hospital in a neighboring village in a semi-conscious state. Suddenly he disappeared and his whereabouts were not discovered until his body was found yesterday on the synagogue steps.
Physicians had predicted that Bloch would succumb to his fast, but neither their warning nor the entreaties of his relatives and friends could prevail upon Bloch to desist. He was fifty-four years old and deemed his death unimportant if it should prove a sacrifice leading to the redemption of the Jewish people.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
