When Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin celebrated 100 years -------

(Reb A.M. Shechter)

------- They forgot about one guy

It's quite a book, by the way, a "coffee table" thing with a boatload of history, and some fascinating pictures too, but for some reason they couldn't remember that he had spent 15 years under their employment. They have names and pictures of Rebbes, Melamdim and Teachers going back to the teens and 20's. They have newspaper articles from that same time period heralding all kinds of events and stories about the Yeshivah, but no mention of him. They mention the secular studies teachers, principals, the food providers and the fundraisers, but no mention of him. As far as the current leadership is concerned, and as far as the annals of history tell the story, He never as much as spent one day there. Why was he Zoycheh to such treatment?

Reb Shlomo shlit"a ben Reb Yosef Tzvi HaYa"d Carlebach. He was quite a personality from what I understand, a prime disciple of the late Rabbi Isaac Hutner from the very early days, and a man that spent many years there, but he never made it to the book that celebrated its long history. He incurred their wrath forever, and was deleted forever. Let's examine this further, shall we?

According to the Wiki article he had a falling out with the Hanholas HaYeshivah when Rabbi Hutner left to Eretz Yisroel to build a Yeshivah there. He was seemingly promised the position of Mashgiach Ruchni and figured that now was the time for the promise to be fulfilled. But Reb Aron Shechter and his SIL Reb Yonason David would have none of that, they made it known that he was no longer welcome in the hallowed halls of The "Gur Aryeh Institute." So Reb Shlomo went and did what many of us would do, he called the current Moetzes Member to a Din Torah, and not just anywhere, but to the Agudas HaRabbonim, then under the leadership of HaRav Moshe Feinstein z"l.

Some people do see themselves as being above the law, believe it or not, and the YRCB clan was from those people. The term used in Wiki is quite cute; "Rabbi Carlebach attempted to bring the termination of his employment and the manner in which it was done to adjudication with various batei din ("Jewish religious courts") but Rabbi Hutner maintained that he was not subject to such proceedings in this instance." In other words, Nisht em meint men. Yes, some people need to listen to Hazmonos, and especially when they're called to DT by the Godol HaDor, but not them. So Reb Shlomo found himself without a job, and to his credit never took it to the secular courts, like they do today at the Yeshivah on the hill in Ir HaTeyreh Bene Beraq. Nobody - I guess - saw anything wrong with ignoring Hazmonos to DT, and one of them is even considered to have Daas Torah by the late Reb Moshe Sherer, an alumnus of YRCB, who rewarded him by putting him on the Moetzes. And so, my friends, that in a nutshell is the story of Reb Shlomo the Rabbi and not the musician, a man who like Al Gore, came oh-so-close to being the next Mashgiach of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin. In his place was put the late Reb Shimon Groner, cousin of Leibel, a grandson of the Alter and Mitteler Rebbes, but a Misnaged vi in posuk shteit.