בארא-פארק סקווערער רבי זצ"ל

 

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LBJ and RFK campaigning in Boro Park, 1964

a young Yoka Ruv, zt"l on your left

In those days candidates didn't take our votes for granted. Or New York, I suppose. Today why bother? It'll go to the Dem anyway. And who wants to be seen as supporting those Jewish Bible-thumpers anyway?

שתתחדש המלוכה... נאך איבער פערציג יאר איז מען מכתיר כ"ק אדמו"ר רבי יקותיאל זושא העשל שליט"א אלץ קאפישניטצער רבי אין בארא פארק

On the 16th of Tammuz, 50 years to the day of the passing of the Reb Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel of Kopysznic, zt"l, there was a Yohrtzeit seudah - as there is every year - at the inconspicuous shtiebel. I'd guess that many, mnay native Boro Parkers couldn't tell you where it is.  Most people who attended didn't know that there would be a הכתרה.  Some 42 years after the passing of his son (HaTomim) Reb Moshe Mordche, the shtiebel on 55th Street has a Rebbe again! Reb Zushe, second son of Reb Moshe Mordche, and a "yungerman" who's ראוי לאותו איצטלא. They say it was at the behest of their cousin, the mashpia Reb Nussy Gurary, son of Reb Zalman, who was married to Chava, daughter of RAYH. He got up and spoke and basically said that the time has come for Reb Zushe to accept the responsibility. He had been doing it in an unofficial capacity, but now it's signed and sealed. They say it'll be more אפטא than רוזשין. All that's left for us to say is:

יאריך ימים על ממלכתו

אחיו הצעיר ר' אברהם יהושע מנשק יד האדמו"ר

שני משמאל האח ר' אברהם יהושע

משוחח עם בן האדמו"ר מסקולען - המשפיע ר' נתן גו"א עליז אחרי ההכתרה

מימין האח ר' איטצי, ומשמאל בן דודו ר' נתן גורארי

Tuvia (from Tuvia's) at his sheva brochos

I remember Reb Shmerel Karelitz (pictured here with the cigarette) from when he lived in Boro Park. He would daven in a local chassidishe shtiebel (השם שמור במערכת) and we looked at him a little odd. Because in our little minds all that was important was how you looked and dressed. And he looked a little different. We didn't know who he was. Wore a frock but like with patent leather shoes. Whatever. Strange what sticks in your head after all those years. Why am I speaking about that side note when it's supposed to be about Tuvia Rotberg, last of the Litvaks?

Chaim Dalfin's Latest Gem

Press Release: In a new fascinating book, a Lubavitcher in Boro Park, Rabbi Chaim Dalfin, author and Chasidic historian, reveals mysteries about his 28 years living as a Chabad Chossid in the Chasidic neighborhood of Boro Park. Traditionally, Chabad Chasidim live in Crown Heights and many other Chasidic groups live in Boro Park and Williamsburg. Rabbi Dalfin shares his childhood experiences, the struggles, challenges and joys in a most humorous, yet, telling way. He has two entire chapters about two of Boro park’s most interesting places. One, the world famous Shomrei Shabbos shul at 13th Avenue corner 53rd Street. This shul isn’t just another shul. it’s the world’s most used shul, with a twenty-four hour soup kitchen, services from 5AM to 3AM and attracts all kinds of people including people who find peace and solace in the shul.

Buy it here

היו ימים... בארא פארק תשכ"ה

Map It!

Source

Would they do something like today, in the אכשר דרא world we live in?

Everybody loves Biegeleisen's!

even the Sadigerrer Rebbe!

"?איר קענט עס אראפשרייבען"

Story Here

 It has its ups and downs, I tell you. Even when times are tough I use a credit card, otherwise you never know where your account is up to. And then you have kids going in and writing down without their parents' permission. And no, it's not all high praise for us frummies; they get their jabs in at our exclusiveness and our dislike for alternative lifestyle people and such. And the OTDers have their say too. [Why do I say that? why not leave good enough alone and be happy with a mostly-positive article/feature? I guess I'm just a glass-half-empty kind of guy.]

You can't win 'em all...

"The Rabbi of the Homeless"

Rav Yehuda Tirnauer, z"l, with a meshulach in the YCS lunchroom, circa 1959. The young man on the right, in the background, is Reb Nissen Neiman, Vizhnitzer Dayan.

The man who sent me this picture, sent it on the condition that I name this thread like that, "The Rabbi of the Homeless." At first we thought that this picture illustrated that idea perfectly, but then he realized that it was a meshulach resting on the bench after a filling lunch. I wasn't aware of that aspect of Rav Tirnauer, who passed away 2 weeks ago, despite me growing up in BP, and despite the fact that my zeide would attend his shiurim daily after he retired. But this is the case, apparently. In Yeshiva Ch'san Sofer on the LES, many of the bachurim were either born during the war or immediately after, and some had parents who could not relate to them. These boys needed a man who would listen to them, and RYT was the man. And that relationship lasted for decades and spanned generations, not just while they were in Yeshivah. Many of these men continued to seek and heed his advice even when dealing with their own children and the issues that arise with raising them. Which makes you think that maybe the fact that so many homeless Jews found a quasi-home in the basement of Shomrei Shabbos shul, where RYT was Rov, was no coincidence after all.

Stayed in Hungary - for now... (Part V)

The new building you see was built after I left. A building on the right - not seen here - was at first the pre-school and later the Mesivta, where shiurim and meals took place.

It seems like I didn't keep my promise, after all. At the end of part IV I promised not to make you wait very long for Part V, but I guess I got caught up in other matters and never did get back to "myself." So all this talk about Spinka reminded many of you about my memoirs, and I got lots of requests to continue them, which I'll begin doing right here.

Mesivta Shem MiShmuel of Mattersdorf sits at the corner of 19th Avenue and 50th Street. The fact that they added "Mattersdorf" to the name shows you where they were heading. Before that there was no Mattersdorf on the building, or even on the stationery, AFAIK. Yes, the Roov was the Mattersdorfer Rov, or "miLefnim Ab"D Mattersdorf," but it wasn't some Mattersdorfer franchise that he was running. But in the late 80s somebody decided that the only way they could continue having a mesivta and yeshiva gedola was to give it a franchise name. Things worked out for a while, and for several years the mesivta was running just fine, but only for a few years. For a few years many of those who learned in the Cheder and came from places like Flatbush and Staten Island, would stay on for Mesivta. But that would soon come to an end. A few years after I arrived an entire class from Mesivta got up and left after 11th grade. The Beis Medrish (Yeshiva Gedola, zal) was not to their liking and they all decided that they would not be going there. IIRC there was no 12th grade at that time, or 3 years mesivta was the normal setup then, I forget which, so after 11th grade you had to go to Beis Medrish, and many of the boys were not willing to do that - for several reasons.

Rav Shmuel Ehrenfeld, late Mattersdorfer Rov and Rosh Yeshivah, with his son Akiva, who took a more Litvishe route in life.

The Beis Medrish at that time was made up of mainly holdovers from the old days. Lots of extended family and old talmidim. There was no official kolel by then, but a lot of the old timers came and learned there. The Beis Medrish uses the actual shul that serves as the shul for Baaleibatim on Shabbos. In short, it wasn't a very pleasant situation for those Flatbush and Staten Island kids. But I'm getting way ahead of myself, talking about years later! First we need to discuss what happened while I was there, and some of the personalities I had the pleasure of getting to know. People like Rabbi Gurewitz, zg"z, who was menahel of the mesivta at that time, a Novardhikker with a car from the 60s and a man who I would've liked to have known better while I was there. I was too young to get to know him, just as I was in Spinka, and he left - IIRC - a year after I arrived there. People like Reb Hershel Cohen, z"l, a Talmid of BME and a Yid a true Yerei Shomayim, who I merited to have as a maggid shiur. Rabbi Cohen suffered terribly later on as Parkinson's ravaged his body and took his away (what we see as) before his time. He was a true Rebbi and taught as as we were his own children, caring about our progress in learning and in midos tovos and yiras shomayim.


So when I say I stayed in Hungary I need to actually be a bit more clear. Yes, Mattersdorf - in the Sheva Kehillos - does fall into the category of Hungary, but it sure was different than Spinka. As different as an "Emberrer" from Budapest was to a chossid from Selish. The goyim might speak Hungarian in both cities, but boy was life different, and boy were the Yidden different there. In Spinka there were Litvishe Maggidei Shiur, yes, but we had one only for Shiur Bekius ("Girseh" in Lubavitch lingo) The older bochurim had people like Reb Gershon Neuman and Reb Yerachmiel Ungarisher full time. We had Chassidishe Maggidei Shiur most of the day, and the Litvishe were there only to teach and to instill a derech haLimud, not to make policy, chas vesholom. (Ironically enough they both are quite un-Litvish, with Neuman a Viener and Ungarisher a Litvak only from his mother, who was a daughter of Reb Ruven Grozovsky.) In other words they didn't dictate policy or set the tone there. In Mattersdorf they reined supreme. In Mesivta we had all Litvishe Maggidei Shiur - as far as I can remember - with one Chassidishe Maggid Shiur for Shiur Bekius. Yes, the Roov came ocassionally to give a shiur or shmuess, but that didn't set the tone, and neither did Shalisheedes in camp, it was the boys and the staff, and if you closed your eyes it could've been a Mesivta in Lakewood or Flatbush.