When the holy Brezhner Ruv R' Shulem Neuschloss met the holy Skverer Rebbe...

And told him His uncle Reb Moshe the Ruv of New Square gave cake and spirits in Shul the day he turned 70. The holy Rebbe acts shocked. I wonder why he's so shocked. He doesn't know what his zeide did, and his father, nebach, didn't reach that stage in life, so why be shocked? Maybe it's a good thing? How many times have we proven here that many, many Tzaddikim celebrated - or at least observed - their Yom Holedes?

(l/h column second paragraph)

....ר' ישראל זופניק'ס יערליכע בוירטדעי פארדי

The narrative by the Hungarian chareidim is that celebrating a birthday is almost prohibited, since it's obviously "Chukas Hagoi." Then we have the chazal of Mutav Sheloi Nivreh. But the more you delve in to it, the more you realize the list of Gedolim that did participate or celebrate the Yom Holedes is quite long. From the great Hungarian Ish Mesorah the Ksav Sofer to the Lithuanian Chofetz Chaim, and then put the Ruzhiner/Viznitzer Rebbes into the mix. What you have is a list that spans the spectrum. Of all the gedolim I was shocked to see that the Satmar Ruv participated in an annual celebration from one of his philanthropists, Reb Yisroel Zupnick, and received a nice sum at the Melava Malka/party. $72,000, to be exact. We see here how the protagonist Jacobowitz liked these kind of fundraisers, since he didn't need to bring his own checkbook, Zupnick was taking care of the bill... It seems that the Baal Divrei Yoel didn't see the party and his participation as a contradiction to his old shtetel mentality, that which he worked tirelessly to refurbish on US soil...

אין סאדיגער האט מען געפראוועט "גרויסע יום הולדת'ן" אין די משפחה

דער סקווערער רבי גלייבט אבער נישט ביז ער וועט זעהן דעם בילד