Even though the community enjoyed great prosperity, he would not allow its leaders to raise his salary from one forint, which he received when first appointed to the position.
The death of Tzvi Hersh Friedman (Frishman) in 1874[1] heralded the end of prosperity in the Jewish community of Liske.
Rav Chaim Friedlander was a descendant of the 16th Century Torah luminary, the Maharsha as well as of Rabbis Judah Loew ben Bezalel, David HaLevi Segal, Joel Sirkis, Isaiah Horowitz, and Naphtali Cohen.
Nevertheless, the Rabbi and kehilla tried to continue with the social and religious services instituted by the first Lisker Rebbe under duress and hardship.
The following week, as the Rabbi was sitting at the dinner table deep in thought, he took a piece of meat in his mouth, the food got lodged in his throat and he choked.
[1] Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Friedlander, son of Rav Chaim, became the third Lisker Rebbe upon his father's death.
Later he got a position as the chief rabbi of Gava (Gávavencsellő), a village in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county of Hungary, until his father died.
Rav Yosef worked endlessly to rebuild Lisker on this side of the Atlantic; until his sudden death on 28 Shevat, 1971.
There was an additional Liska congregation, based originally in the Bronx and subsequently on the Upper East Side, which closed in 2014.