Is this possibly an unknown picture of Reb Yisroel, the Stoliner Rebbe?

This gem was recently sent to me by a guy who noticed this picture on page 172 in the recently-published "Marienbad" by Dovid Leitner of Manchester, England. The picture has no caption. The Leitners are famous for the hotel that they ran in Marienbad, Czechoslovakia. Many of the now-famous pictures of the Rabbonim and Tzaddikim of yesteryear were taken in Marienbad and many of them feature members of the Leitner famly in them. Reb Dovid was kind enough to mention me in the foreword to the book. (See below.) 

Hirshel Tzig of America. Has a nice ring to it. 

I owe Reb Dovid a review of the book on the blog here after he was kind enough to send me a complimentary copy, and I hope to deliver that sometime in the not-too-distant future. Until then, buy his book here.  

Back to the picture:

The gentleman on the right seems to be Reb Yisroel, the Rebbe of Stolin, also known as either the Yenuka, or the Frankfurter, as he's known among Stoliner Chassidim. He passed away on Rosh Hashonoh 5682,1921, in Frankfurt, Germany and was interred there. As is the custom still today among the Rebbes of Stolin, photography was shunned and avoided. That would likely explain why he was turning away from the camera and the man on his left may be moving into position to hide him from the camera. The photographer was also likely a non-Jew, which would maybe preclude the Frankfurter from either covering his face or even lashing out at him, as was customary, say among the Gerrer entourages of that time. Among Chassidei Karlin-Stolin it is known that he visited Marienbad. The photo was likely taken after WWI, when once again Jews came to vacation there, and close to his passing in 1921.

"Official picture" of the Stoliner Rebbe"

Compare the new picture with the official one and see for yourselves. I think this may be a major find! One that gladdens the heart of Stoliner Chassidim as well as Jewish history lovers of all kinds and backgrounds. Lost in all of this is the fact that the gentleman 2nd from left also remains unidentified... Some say maybe it's a Komarna personality, since they were mechutonim, but nothing more specific.

ציון הרה"ק ר' ישראל זצ"ל בפפד"מ

see 3rd paragraph

 

די קארלינער און סלאנימער אין טבריא - היו ימים

A little piece of history about the Stolin-Slonim cold war in pre-State Tiberias and how Rav Kook and Reb Moshe Kliers, darling of the zealots, got together to help end - albeit temporarily - an ongoing feud between the two Chassidic groups in Tveria. It's also a good story because it explains why the Slonimers afforded to be zealots. מ'רעדט פון ר' מאטל - נישט די נתיבות שלום און זיינע ציונים. You might say it was because they didn't work for a living and didn't have to face reality. They learned in Yeshiva Or Torah, got stipends from the כולל חלוקה, while the Karliner had jobs. Imagine that. Jobs. Can that have something to do with the Slonimer coming up with the phrase געמל'טע פערד on the Karliner Chasidim? It may pre-date that. The funny thing is they both come from the holy Reb Shlomo Karliner's cheder, so why fight? And as is usually the case, much of this kind of behavior happens today as well. Those who don't work for a living have all the time in the world for קנאות and solving the world's problems.

Or you can chose to ignore this story because it comes from ציוניסטישע קוועלער.
For more on the רך הנימול see here

נפטר געווארען ר' יודל אקערמאן ע"ה

Read More

 Whereas all other websites all took the same recent picture and posted the same few lines about Reb Yidel, we go the extra mile and bring you a few gems from the early years. None of them knew who he was, besides for the paers that have Stoliners among their ranks of writers. The rest just see an article and figure he was an important guy, so they write a few lines. We bring you one picture where he's standing behind a very young Stoliner Rebbe, and the other seemingly in Williamsburg, at a wedding in the early '60s. That's why sometimes things take a little longer to appear on this blog, because we try harder.

תואר פני כ"ק אדמו"ר ר' משה'לע מסטולין זצ"ל הי"ד

With my sincererest apologies to my Karlin-Stoliner friends who don't like to share... This is a visa/passport application in July of 1926. Moshe son of Yisroel Perlow. There are a few pictures of the Stoliner Rebbe, but this is special, in my humble opinion. The others are from a distance and not clear. Reb Moshe'le was a great lover of Israel and the Jewish People and visited the Holy Land on several occasions. He and his family were murdered in Stolin in 1942. Today's Stoliner Rebbe is his younger brother Reb Yochonon's grandchild.

With thanks to Yuri Dorn

Tuesday Links n' stuff

Loitzker Rebbe visits "Schneersohn Library" in Moscow


 This recording is somewhat of a novelty, being that RBZS sings it at a very slow pace, as well as inserts some very unique chazzonus shtiklach. Almost as if he were trying to "improve" on the piece. Make it more appealing, if you will. Something we never hear from him. If you have 27 minutes to spare, listen. Or just let it run in the background while you "work."

UPDATE: SUNDAY 3/15/2015. THE CLIP HAS BEEN REMOVED. ASK ME WHY IN THE COMMENTS, IF YOU SO PLEASE.

Monday Morning Links

רבינו הזקן ואדמו"רי קרלין
חדש בעולם הספרים: עיונים והערות במנחת חינוך מכ"ק רבינו מליובאוויטש זי"ע
Chabad.org: The Alter Rebbe's notes in the Maggid's Siddur
These kids raised 2.4 mil with out going from shul to shul 
Monsey celebrates 19k early
Haredi MKs show they're back and support Bibi
Naphtali Lavie, 88

קרלין-סטולין מפרגן לחב"ד

ביים שבת טיש

One thing I have a hard time with is the "ענק", "עטץ" and other such words like "פארשטייטץ", that should be בבחינת לא יזכר ולא יפקד in a publication from Stolin-Karlin (Karlin-Stolin). I guess being in Boro Park all these years has its disadvantages.

 Box.com link

שארפע דיבורים פונעם סטאלינער רבי'ן ר' ישרא-ל זצ"ל

answer to the yesterday's mystery

It's the original resting place of the Rebbe, Reb Yochanan of Lutsk/Karlin-Stolin, youngest son of the Rebbe, Reb Yisroel of Stolin, זצ"ל. This is the Stoliner Celkah in the Washington Cemetery in South Brunswick, NJ. A.K.A. Deans. Reb Yochonon was buried there "al tnei" after his passing in 5716, and a year or so later was moved to Tverya, Israel. There are lots of stories about that - maybe for another time.

חדב"נ ר' עזרא שוחט, father of the Karlin-Stoliner Rebbe. Interesting choice of words on the מצבה. I assume the Stoliner Rebbe authored it. The מצבה is off to the side, in deference, I suppose.

I chose this matzeivoh mostly because of the reference to the "חסידה מאדמו"רי קרלין-סטאלין" which is engraved here. You wouldn't see that on the matzeivoh of a Hungarian Jewish woman...

תמונת הערב - ווען וועלט איז געווען וועלט

The Detroit Stoliner shul, Beis Aron V'Yisroel when it still was a shul.

Let's see who can identify the cars in the picture...


View Larger Map

About Stoliner Chassidim and shtieblach in Detroit, תובב"א

Beth Aron V'Yisroel shul at 2567 Elmhurst at Linwood (Detroit)

Received via email:


Tzig, I read your post from years ago regarding the Stoliner shuls in Detroit and what has become of them, and here's some additional information: 

First a bit about Stoliner chassidim in Detroit. The Rebbe Reb Yisroel Perlow ZY”A, known as the Yenuka, started sending chassidim to the US as early as 1880. Detroit was favored over other areas because it was easier to get jobs that did not require one to work on Shabbos. Stoliners organized a minyan/shul as early as 1905 in Detroit and one of the Rabbonim who served as Rov in their shul was Rabbi Yitzchak (Isaac) Stollman z”l. Reb Mendel Zeilingold (a Stoliner from Lutzk, who later lived in New York and then Yerushalayim) said over that the Yenuka once said; ווען מיר וואלטען געווען מיט צעהן יאהר יונגער וואלטין מיר געמאכט א נסיעה קיין דיטרויט". They say that at the turn of the century there were around 100 Stoliner chassidim in Detroit. The shul that you wrote about in the 2006 post was built by the chassidim themselves. Mr. Tzvi Strom is an einikel of Mrs. Chava Wainer, in whose house the “Detroiter” Rebbe was niftar. He remembers pounding nails into the floor boards on his way home after school in the ‘30s. That neighborhood in Detroit started going downhill in the 50’s. The decline was swift. Many of the older chassidim had died out and the younger crowd joined Young Israel etc. Few were left to care for the shul and the “chelka”, the cemetery area where the Rebbe is buried. Some say that the previous Rebbe, Reb Yochanan “shtelled avek" one memuneh to make sure that the shul would not be sold, or one version is, that it should not be sold to a church.

That story goes on to say that this man worked all the time to ensure this, He put clauses into the shul documents etc. But he was once hospitalized for a short period of time and came out to find out that it was too late. I also heard from an older chossid that the Stoliners would come every year and work on eitzos to keep the shul up and running. He said that there was a law at the time that a store within 2 blocks of a church, (not a shul) could not sell liquor. So there was one store 1 block away and another 2 and ½ blocks away. The chevreh went to the farther store and told him that the synagogue is costing a lot to maintain and it might end up being a church (which is what happened to many other shuls in the area), and that would result in the other, closer store being allowed to sell liquor and him needing to shut his store. The proprietor got very nervous and asked what he can do to help? The chassidim told him that if he helps pay for the maintenance of the shul then they won't need to sell it. The guy helped them out financially for a few years. Sadly, later on the Yeshiva in Boro Park received a phone call from the Detroiters that they are sending a large amount of cash for the Yeshiva. They immediately understood what happened, and they dispatched 2 or 3 people to Detroit and tried to “handel” with the buyer. They even offered him twice the amount that he had paid for it but to no avail. The buyer, though, was some sort of Boy Scout organization or something similar. It was not sold directly to a church. Brokenhearted the chassidim returned to New York. Either way, to say that the Stoliners SOLD the shul, and to a church nuch dertzu, is a fabrication.

Research is currently being conducted to try and find out more about the chassidim of that era, in Detroit and other areas across the USA. Anybody with information is asked to email stoliners.usa@gmail.com.