Monday, September 3, 2012

Yeshiva Torah Vodaas Graduation - 1949 (famous names here!)



































Rabbi Moshe Wolfson and Rabbi Sholom Rivkin, to name a few. The Rav HaRoshi, HaRav Herzog spoke at the חג הסמיכה, as did Rav Gedalia Schorr, The Novominsker Rebbe, great-uncle of the current Rebbe, as well as Rav Moshe D Rivkin, Rav Ruven Grozovsky, Rav Yaakov Kamenecki and Rav Nissan Telushkin. Mind you, this is the Brooklyn Eagle, not the Yated, which shows us that showing the general world what we do in Yeshivos was important even back then. It isn't something new that some "מתחדשים" came up with. Letters from Pres. Truman (!) and then-Mayor O'Dwyer were read! They went all out.




















30 comments:

yekkishe bekishe said...

Is there any way to make the names legible?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

this used to work, now all the pages become small and illegible. I need to work on it.

wow! said...


$5.98 א קליידל פאר א מיידעל, פאר

מוז זיין פאר די אונגארישע האבען גיוואנדערט, אין גילאנדעט, אויף אונזערע ברעקענס

איך-בין-אייו-קאלאשיצער said...


ס'איו דא א בריעף איינער שרייבט פון אמעריקע פאר'ן קאלאשיצער רב זצ"ל אין גאליציע, אז ער לערינט אין תורה ודעת, אין קאלאשיצער רב שרייבט איהם צוריק 'תורה ויראה' גיפעלט מיר בעסער! ניבא ואינו יודע מה ניבא

Anonymous said...

I just called the company for the Fitwell advertisement underneath the number still works!!!!!!!


Shalom Barber said...

Hirshel, I can send it to you again, zoomed in...

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

שיק, שלום, ביטע

amazing said...

Anonymous said...
I just called the company for the Fitwell advertisement underneath the number still works!!!!!!!

Amazing, how about the price $5.98 works to?

ברבר ישראל said...

Shalom Barber said... ------

ברבורים! ושליו ודגים, מערב מזמינים! אצונדער דער סיזאן פאר אללע דריי, עצל למה תישן

נ"ב די פרייז פאר א ליבאב. קאפ אהנע פיאות מיז זיין ביליגער איא
?

Shalom Barber said...

לא ירדתי לסוף דעתו של הרב ישראל.
אולי יותר טוב שלא....

sholom said...

R'Shmuel Kushelwitz, mentioned as the one who "gave the degrees" was Rav Shachs cousin (or mothers cousin?)

brother ismail said...

Shalom Barber said...
לא ירדתי לסוף דעתו של הרב ישראל.
אולי יותר טוב שלא....

They say what you don't know can hurt right?

Yerachmiel Lopin said...

Nice find. It would be fascinating to see where the lesser known names ended up. I know for sure in some of the other years some ended up as conservative rabbis. This also happened to Chaim Berlin. As one of those explained to me, in those years most of the orthodox pulpits were also mixed seating. and in those years most of the orthodox shuls in the burbs has people driving on shabbos. So there wasnt much difference. (Of course he didn't mention that the conservative were growing faster and usually paid better).

Anyways we often focus on those we know that stayed inside the orthodox world. But, I wonder how many left, either of the hs graduates or even of the musmachim. that would be a real test of the impact of the education (though confounded by the fact that all schools did not start with equal quality human material). Clearly, especially in those years, they all had some serious defections. for example chabad had zalman shachter of renewal.
and of course Carlebach (unless you reject the idea that he was in part Chabad and insist on calling him a Lakewood product.)

Ende Tsadik said...

Tzig wrote: which shows us that showing the general world what we do in Yeshivos was important even back then.

Even back then? Only back then. We wouldn't want to show the general world what we do in many of our yeshives these days. The first letter of Rabbin Finkel's successor was on the scourge of technology iz viazoi ken men mit zei tzugein tsum tish?

wilson said...


Amazing how the same shelamiel spreads his lapis as a know all on topics he usually knows nothing

RWMO said...

I see it says that Rav Aharon D Burack, longtime Rosh Yeshiva at YU, also spoke. Interesting. I'm sure such a thing could not happen today, for various reasons.

One of the musmachim is Aaron Epstein - anyone know if that is Rav Aharon Zelig Epstein?

JS said...

I also can't read it. It's more legible here: click

שמאטע סוחר said...

Tzig: "which shows us that showing the general world what we do in Yeshivos was important even back then. Letters from Pres. Truman (!) and then-Mayor O'Dwyer were read! They went all out."
------------
Wich shows us where this class where heading after the
!חג הסמיכה, בשמיכה

dovy in j said...

"could not happen today?" of course it could. Rabbi Kahn or Parnes of Y.U. could speak in any frum setting (only the left-wingers couldn't)

Rav Zelig was in his late 30s in 1949 and already a maggid shiur

dovy in j said...

rabbi shubert spiro = long-time rabbi of young israel of cleveland hts. great-uncle of storyteller Chiely and Moish Finkel's predeccesor Chaim.

Meet me in Saint Louie said...

Sholom Rifkin I think is a typo from Rivkin, the late Chief Rabbi of St Louis who was the son of a Lubavitcher chossid who was a Torah Vodaas rosh yeshiva.

Old Torah Vodaas said...

Not so surprising about YU participation as the old YU guard from pre-1938 was still around. Even though they were Mizrachi leaning, they were fort a bunch of alter Telzers & Slabodkers (including Bernard Revel) who commanded respect from the roshei yeshiva of Lita.

Modern Ortho Boogie said...

"most of the orthodox pulpits were also mixed seating"

Not really, but there was mixed dancing by Young Israel events until the movement was hijacked by Ner Yisroel to make it more frum.

Rabbi Leib Kelman from Prospect Park girls school has two brothers who became big shots in the Conservative movement. Wolf authored the abridged "Siddur" (which a UTJ Knesset member once threw on the floor during session to show what it's worth). The other brother went to a large shul in Toronto which became Conservative in 1955. It was in the same neighborhood where R' Dov Schochet lived. The wayward Kelmans then destroyed a 2nd shul in the same neighborhood until R' Dov's grandson came along to pick up whatever few pieces were left.

Red Dawn said...

R' Yaakov wanted R' Zelig to be the next rosh yeshiva of Torah Vodaas. Instead, a certain faction ganged up together with a board member to hijack the place with all kinds of dirty tricks including kicking R' Shraga Feivel's almono out of the house in Monsey owned by the yeshiva. At that meeting where the hijacking went down, everyone was shocked, especially at the faction's being metzayer the almono. R' Yaakov blew a gasket and stormed out of the building. R' Reuvein Grozovsky couldn't move much because he had recently suffered a stroke so he could only sit there crying. The meeting ended with Rav Belsky's grandfather Rav Wilhelm smashing a chair over the head of the board member, sending him to the hospital on a stretcher.

Anonymous said...

a friend of a friend here:

i was in jts a few weeks ago, saw the newspaper "the yid"
was also impressed about the roundness of the publication. any info on how this changed?

dovy in j said...

they have der yid in JTS? you mean the jts as in jewish theological seminary? people still know yiddish there?

Anonymous said...

also listed - Moshe Weitman - the founder of TAG in Far Rockaway

Anonymous said...

and Elias Schwartz the longtime menahel of Yeshivas Toras Emes in Boro Park.

ira said...

Red Dawn,

I would love to read more about this...

Anonymous said...

Modern Ortho Boogie said... "Rabbi Leib Kelman from Prospect Park girls school has two brothers who became big shots in the Conservative movement"

for the record, that should be "Rabbi Avrohom Kelman..."
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/27/obituaries/rabbi-wolfe-kelman-66-leader-in-judaism-s-conservative-branch.html