Jewish History Soundbites

Hail to the Chief: The Life & Leadership of Rav Eliezer Silver Part I

One of the architects or American Orthodoxy and perhaps the greatest Orthodox rabbinical leader in that country of the 20th century, Rav Eliezer Silver (1886-1968) had a decisive impact on Jewish life. Through his communal rabbinical leadership, his national leadership on the American scene, through the organizations which he spearheaded and ran for decades, and of course his myriad efforts on behalf of Eastern European Jewry.

Having studied under Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in Vilna, Rav Yosef Rosen the Rogatchover in Dvinsk and Rav Chaim Brisker in Brisk, he then immigrated to the United States at the peak of the great immigration in 1907.

He'd later be president of the Agudas Harabbonim, founder of Ezras Torah, founder of Agudath Israel of America, founder and president of Vaad Hatzalah and a constant man of action for almost every Jewish, educational and rescue undertaking during his long career.

 

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With the New York City election day today June 22, 2021, it’s time to drop the excuses and VOTE.  When it comes to funding for our schools and communities, elected officials pay attention to the people who vote. It’s simple: If you're not voting, you don't have a voice.
 
Make sure you vote on June 22!  Have questions or need help with your voter plan? Call or email the Orthodox Union’s Teach NYS at (646) 459-5162 or email frandm@teachcoalition.org. When you vote, elected officials take note.

 

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An Angel Amid the Ashes: The Klausenberger Rebbe Part II

In honor of the yahrtzeit of Rav Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam, the Sanz-Klausenburg Rebbe (1905-1994), another chapter in his storied life is presented, as his charismatic leadership and Torah greatness is examined in greater detail.

Having emerged from the horrors of the Holocaust while losing his entire family and community, he set out to rebuild while strongly maintaining the independence of his own community. Building institutions and teaching Torah, he assumed roles which were atypical of a standard chassidic leader. His leading an independent stance ons many issues brought him occasionally into dispute with other Torah leaders, but he maintained his position. 

With perseverance, leadership and Torah scholarship, he successfully recreated a Galician Sanz community on the beach of the Mediterranean in the city of Netanya.

 

Part 1: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/an-angel-amid-the-ashes-the-klausenberger-rebbe-part-i/

 

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With the New York City election day around the corner, it’s time to drop the excuses and VOTE.  When it comes to funding for our schools and communities, elected officials pay attention to the people who vote.  It’s simple: If you're not voting, you don't have a voice.
 
Make sure you vote early, by mail, or on June 22!  Have questions or need help with your voter plan? Call or email the Orthodox Union’s Teach NYS at (646) 459-5162 or email frandm@teachcoalition.org. When you vote, elected officials take note.

 

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David Ben-Gurion & the Jewish Character of the State of Israel

Considered by many as the founding father of the State of Israel, David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) had a unique vision of the Jewish character of the Jewish state. With an antagonism towards religious practice and his negative view of the 'diaspora Jew', he also had a sense of realpolitik and understood the practical gains of reaching a status quo agreement. On October 20, 1952 he paid a visit to Israel's most venerable sage, Rav Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, the Chazon Ish.

Though thoroughly secular himself, he had a strong love for Tanach. And though he wouldn't set foot into a synagogue in Israel, in the Diaspora he viewed it as a place where Jews got together and expressed their common identity and community. Zionism in his view had achieved the twin goals of creating a Jewish state in the historic Land of Israel and - for those residing there - the ingathering of exiles. It had thus served its purpose, and he declared that, 'I'm an Israeli, not a Zionist'.

With a myriad of accomplishments and a controversial legacy, the story of Ben Gurion and the Jewish character of the state he had done so much to found, is a chapter of Jewish history with reverberations down to this very day.

 

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With the New York City election day around the corner, it’s time to drop the excuses and VOTE.  When it comes to funding for our schools and communities, elected officials pay attention to the people who vote.  It’s simple: If you're not voting, you don't have a voice.
 
Make sure you vote early, by mail, or on June 22!  Have questions or need help with your voter plan? Call or email the Orthodox Union’s Teach NYS at (646) 459-5162 or email frandm@teachcoalition.org. When you vote, elected officials take note.

 

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Rabbi Yitzchak Rubinstein & The Vilna Rabbinate Controversy

Though Vilna was known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania, it hadn't had an official chief rabbi since a dispute about the position ended in 1791. As a result of the Polish government requiring the hiring of chief rabbi in the 1920's, the Vilna Jewish community council hired Rav Yitzchak Rubinstein (1880-1945) as the official chief rabbi of the city. He had served as the official 'Rav Mitaam' government rabbi since 1910, and was beloved by the community to his leadership and activism during the First World War.

This appointment was made despite the fact that Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was the undisputed Torah leader in Vilna and across the Jewish world, as well as serving as the unofficial chief rabbi for decades. This led to a bitter dispute which was to have a lasting effect on the community, as well as the wider scope of inter Jewish politics.

The Chofetz Chaim protested on behalf of the honor of Rav Chaim Ozer, and other protests followed. Though the dispute eventually calmed down, resentment remained. Rabbi Rubinstein himself ultimately escaped to New York at the beginning of the Second World War and passed away there in 1945.

 

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With the New York City election day around the corner, it’s time to drop the excuses and VOTE.  When it comes to funding for our schools and communities, elected officials pay attention to the people who vote.  It’s simple: If you're not voting, you don't have a voice.
 
Make sure you vote early, by mail, or on June 22!  Have questions or need help with your voter plan? Call or email the Orthodox Union’s Teach NYS at (646) 459-5162 or email frandm@teachcoalition.org. When you vote, elected officials take note.

 

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The Great Defender of Israel: Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev

One of the most legendary leaders the Chassidic movement has ever produced Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (1740-1809) is a universally beloved figure as well. Following his conversion to the nascent movement in the court of the Maggid of Mezritch, he spread the ideas of chassidus while simultaneously leading a lucrative rabbinic career in Zelichov, Pinsk and Berditchev.

Known to posterity as the Great Defender of the Jewish People, he devoted his life to seeking out the good in every individual as well as the Jewish People as a collective. 

 

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Radical Mussarites: The School of Novardok

The Novardok Yeshiva was both a mussar philosophy as well as a movement. Founded by Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz (1850-1919), the Alter of Novardok, in 1896, it soon grew into tens of branches across Russia. Known for its rather radical approach to mussar, educational philosophy and growth, it was seemingly influenced by the general revolutionary zeitgeist in the Russian Empire at the turn of the century.

Exiled during World War One, the entire movement would eventually make a daring border crossing into Poland in order to escape from Soviet Russia. The flagship yeshiva was established in Bialystok under the leadership of the Alter's son in law Rav Avraham Joffen. Several other primary branches were established in other cities, with tens of smaller branches across the country. Often it was chassidic students who were recruited to join its ranks. Decimated during the war, attempts were made at rebuilding in Israel through several pre war branches that had been established there, as well as the United States, with limited success. In France however, Rav Gershon Leibman succeeded in reestablishing the Novardok network with his Ohr Yosef schools, which primarily served Moroccan students.

 

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Jews of the Maghreb: The Uniqueness of Moroccan Jewry

There is a certain uniqueness to the storied and ancient Jewish community of Morocco. At least 2,000 years old, it became the numerically largest Sephardic community in the world by the mid 20th century. On the other hand, for several centuries the community and many of its Torah leaders were relatively unknown beyond the confines of Moroccan Jewry.

This was primarily due to its relative isolation. Nestled on the western edge of the African continent, it remained distant from both Europe as well as the vast Ottoman Empire. This isolation assisted in preserving and enriching the heritage and culture unique to Moroccan Jewry, as well as limiting the scope of its influence within the wider Jewish world.

Medieval Morocco was host to luminaries such as the Rambam for several years while he was on the run from the Almohads, as well as the tzadik Rabi David UMoshe who arrived initially to fundraise for the Jewish community of Jerusalem and stayed on to lead the Berber Jewish community of the Atlas Mountains.

 

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Great American Jewish Cities #21: Monsey Part II

From the early days of Bais Medrash Elyon and its prominent alumni, Monsey continued to develop both up and down "the hill". Rav Yaakov Lipschutz, Rav Chaim Flohr and others were prominent rabbis, as Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky still had a large impact on the town overall. Diverse schools opened up from ASHAR to Bais Dovid for boys and Bais Yaakov to Bais Rochel for girls.

Soon Satmar arrived on the scene and first joining the Chareidim Shul, they then opened up an entire empire of their own institutions. Even Neturei Karta US headquarters were in Monsey led by Moshe Ber Beck and Yisroel Dovid Weiss.

With its diversity and all kinds, Monsey developed into a unique suburban Jewish community.

 

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Great American Jewish Cities #21: Monsey Part I

Monsey. Rockland County. The Hudson River Valley. The image of suburbia. This small town across the Tappan Zee Bridge somehow developed into one of the largest Jewish Orthodox enclaves worldwide.

Though the area had some minor Jewish beginnings from the end of the 19th century, it was with the vision of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz that Monsey began to develop as a Jewish community. Rav Shraga Feivel built Bais Medrash Elyon and his family and students laid the foundations of many Torah institutions including Yeshiva of Spring Valley and Bais Shraga. Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik was an early rabbi in Spring Valley, while his wife Rebbetzin Shoshana was a pioneer in girls education, standing at the helm of the Monsey Bais Yaakov for decades.

Great personalities who resided in the town and contributed to its development included Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rav Mordechai Schwab, Rav Nosson Horowitz, Ronnie Greenwald, the Vizhnitz Rebbe Rav Mottele Hager, Rav Moshe Neuschloss in nearby New Square and many others. 

 

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Torah for Eternity: Stories of Rav Shmuel Rozovsky

Rav Shmuel Rozovsky (1913-1979) was perhaps the most influential teacher of Torah in the rebuilding of the post war Yeshiva world. Born into a rabbinic family in Grodno, he eventually moved to Palestine to escape the Polish army draft. There he joined the Lomza Yeshiva in Petach Tikva, later becoming the first rosh yeshiva in Ponovezh in Bnei Brak.

When he was diagnosed with cancer, he sought out treatment in the United States, spending several months in Boston. Through the many challenges he faced in life, he continued to see his primary focus as a teacher of Torah.

 

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