Monday, April 28, 2014

when Reb Avigdor Miller tried to save Reb Mottel Shusterman's job way back in 1953 in East Flatbush























Yesterday (Sunday) was the Yohrtzeit of Reb Avigdor Miller. Not that I keep track of that bit of info, I learned about it from Yeshiva World News, that bastion of useful information. Then, I was reading the memoirs of the late Reb Mottel Shusterman, aka "The Rebbe's Baal Koreh," and owner of the עזרא and בלשן printing companies. He was a chossid from Zhlobin, Russia who survived the war by moving eastward to Uzbekistan and then leaving Russia with the עשאלאנען as a Polish citizen in 1946. Upon arriving in New York in 1949 he took a job as the שמש in the Yeshivas Reb Meir Simcha haCohen shul in East Flatbush. (Rabbi JJ Hecht was the Rov there.) Being a shamash also meant giving shiurim for Baaleibatim, leining, and also davening for the amud. It was after hours that he learned the American style of typeset and printing. [agav, the way he got his visa is one for the ages: He was a first cousin thru marriage to the late Reb Chaim Shtein of Telshe. Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland managed to obtain 6 visas for Professors of Talmud after WW2. These very precious visas were a lot harder to get than the student visas and basically guaranteed almost immediate entry to the US. Student visas meant you had to get in line and wait your turn... Rebbetzin Shtein made sure that one of those precious six visas went to her Lubavitcher cousin, Mottel Shusterman and family!)

Well: I'll let Reb Mottel himself tell the story....


17 comments:

Snag said...

Can we hear a story of a Lubavitcher doing the same for a Misnaged Rav?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

snag:

1) we have shown such stories

2) was there ever a misnagdishe shamash like Mottel Shusterman???

3) if he did do it they'd probably take it out of his memoirs. His kids or grand kids who publish it.

LOL

Not a Harry said...

R' Nochumke of Horodne, for starters. Who here had to Google his name to know who he was?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

ok. so you wanna know if reb Nochum'ke's job was ever saved by a chossid?

Lint Roller said...

Snag
"Can we hear a story of a Lubavitcher doing the same for a Misnaged Rav?"
Did the Rayatz not work hard to get the position for RJBS in RIETS?

Anonymous said...

Rabbi Avigdor Miller was mikareved by R Avram Elya Axelrod. He had A Tanya in his bookcase in his shul.

Not a Harry said...

R Nochumke worked as a shamash. עד כאן המעשה

ObZerver said...

Rav avigdor miller זצ״ל was a rare jewish leader that loved every frum jew( to exclude rackman and kadomeh)

ObZerver said...

There is a new site where is tapes are available to listen in high quality.

dovy said...

ObZ,
Jewish leaders that love every Jew are not rare.

JJJ said...

Is this the Rabbi Avigdor Miller who says that the Holocaust was a kindness to the Jews?

onlooker said...

Isn't it also interesting to hear that Rav Chaim Stein's wife took care of her cousin? Didn't they come to America very shortly before that themselves

Kovner said...

It's the greatest of irony that R' Miller became a "rebbe" at the end of his life to a community of shtreimel/white-sock wearing
Hungarian chassidim!

Yanover said...

who cares if he had a tanya in his bookcase in shul, does that mean hes "mekareved"? Doesnt mean he learns it. Besides everyone holds by the tanya even Rav Shach spoke highly about the baal hatanya. the real question is who has a likutei sichos in their office...

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

yes, JJJ

but what do you expect from an American-born Gadol....

ObZerver said...

When the gedolim wanted to put the satmar rebbi in חרם for his anti medina views circa 1951 he called rav avigdor miller to help.
The godolim=r.e.s. and freinds

JJJ said...

I expect better from a "godol"

Now all we have in Amerika is amerikan born "gedolim"and they've lived "down" to our expectations

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