Career
In defiance of the Soviet authorities, Reb Yankel compiled locations of usable mikvahs across the Soviet Union and distributed them in little notes to Jewish women in marketplaces. In praise of Reb Yankel, the Rebbe said, "If I had ten Yankels, I could overturn all of Russia" In the early 1930s, he resided in the Moscow suburb of Malakhovka until his arrest in 1935. Reb Yankel was arrested by the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs in 1935 and executed in 1938.
The exact date and location of his execution is not known.
