Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam, the Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe, known as the Shefa Chaim and the Divrei Yatziv after his works, was born in Rudnik on 4 Shevat 5665 (1905), the son of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Halberstam, the town's rabbi, a great-grandson of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz and, through his mother, a descendant of the Bnei Yissaschar of Dynów. Orphaned of his father at thirteen or fourteen, he was ordained that same year by Rabbi Meir Arik, and studied mainly under Rabbi David Tzvi Zehman of Dukla. In 1925 he married Pessel Teitelbaum, niece of the Satmar Rebbe, and in 1930 became rabbi of a congregation in Klausenburg (Cluj), Romania.

In the Holocaust he lost his wife and eleven children, and himself survived Auschwitz and the death marches. From the moment of liberation he set about lifting up the survivors and rebuilding. In the United States and then in Israel he built communities, yeshivot and institutions. In 1956 he founded the Kiryat Sanz neighbourhood in Netanya and later the Laniado Hospital, where, by his wish, Shabbat is never desecrated.

Renowned as much for his learning as for his holiness, he left the responsa Divrei Yatziv and the commentaries Shefa Chaim. He passed away on 9 Tammuz 5754 (1994) and rests in Netanya.