Mordechai Shlomo Friedman
Mordechai Shlomo Friedman | |
---|---|
Title | Boyaner Rebbe of New York |
Personal | |
Born | Mordechai Shlomo Friedman 15 October 1891 Boiany (Boyan) |
Died | 2 March 1971 | (aged 79)
Religion | Judaism |
Spouse | Chava Sara Heschel |
Children | Yisroel Malka Yitzchok |
Parents |
|
Jewish leader | |
Predecessor | Rabbi Yitzchok Friedman |
Successor | Rabbi Nachum Dov Brayer |
Began | November 1927 |
Ended | 2 March 1971 |
Dynasty | Boyan |
Mordechai Shlomo Friedman (15 October 1891 in
Early life
Mordechai Shlomo Friedman was the youngest son of the founder and first Rebbe of the Boyaner dynasty, Rabbi
and a sister.At the age of 10 he was engaged to Chava Sara, daughter of Rabbi Israel Shalom Yosef Heschel, the Mezhbizher Rebbe.[1] They were married eight years later.[1][3] They had two sons, Yisroel and Yitzchok, and a daughter, Malka.[4]
Move to America
At the beginning of World War I, the Russian army entered the town of
The youngest son, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo, remained in Vienna with his mother until her death in 1922.[7] At that point he entertained an offer to head the Hasidic community of Drohobych in Western Ukraine, and another to lead an organized chaburah (group) of Boyaner Hasidim on New York's Lower East Side.[4] The American group maintained a small kloiz (synagogue) where they gathered on the yahrtzeits of their rebbes. From time to time, this group would send one of their own to visit the Boyaner Rebbe in Boiany and bring back spiritual nourishment for his fellows. After World War I the president of this group, Mordechai Cohen, traveled to Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo in Vienna and begged him to visit the Boyaner Hasidim in America. Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo acquiesced and embarked on an 11-month pilot trip beginning in December 1925, visiting several New York neighborhoods as well as Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. He was feted with a large farewell gathering at the kloiz before his return to Europe.[1]
For the next year, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo weighed the pros and cons of relocating to America. He consulted with his uncle, Rabbi Yisrael Friedman of Chortkov, and his eldest brother, Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernowitz, who both encouraged him to make the move.[1][8][9] He and his family arrived in New York in November 1927.[10] On Hanukkah of that year, the Boyaner Hasidim called a meeting to raise money for the purchase of the building at 247 East Broadway as a kloiz.[1] This building housed a beis medrash with accommodations for up to 175 worshippers.[11] In keeping with Ruzhiner custom, the Rebbe spent most of his time in prayer and study in a separate room called the daven shtiebel (prayer room). There was also a tish room, and apartments upstairs for the Rebbe and his family.[1]
The Boyaner kloiz became an island of sanctity on the teeming streets of the Lower East Side.[1] The Rebbe was a charismatic personality who exuded the sense of nobility and spiritual loftiness characteristic of rebbes of the Boyaner dynasty, yet he also displayed a warmth and paternal concern that appealed to many American Jewish youth who had never seen a rebbe before. The Rebbe inspired quite a number of secular Jewish youth to become ba'alei teshuvah (returnees to the faith).[1][9][12][13] He succeeded in uniting the Ruzhin-Boyan survivors of the Holocaust and proved that Hasidut could be a viable lifestyle in America.[14]
The Rebbe was known for living modestly and simply. He lived in the same apartment over the kloiz for 40 years and did not replace his furniture.[9] Whenever he traveled using public funds, he refused to take a taxi and traveled by subway.[15][16]
Leadership
The Rebbe took an active role in American Jewish leadership. He was a founder[17] and president of the Agudath HaAdmorim (Union of Grand Rabbis) of the United States, in which capacity he participated in the Rabbi's March on Washington in 1943.[18] He was the first vice president of Agudath Israel of America[19][20] and a member of that body's Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.[21] In conjunction with Agudath HaRabbanim, he helped organize the Vaad Hatzalah during World War II and assisted the rescue of Torah leaders in Poland and Eastern Europe.[21][22] After the war, he was elected president of Vaad HaEzra, in which capacity he raised funds to help Holocaust survivors in post-war Europe.[22][23] He was respected by every segment of the Jewish world, including "misnagdim, the yeshivah world, baalebatim, the modern intelligentsia…the other chassidic leaders who arrived later to the American shores, as well as the rabbinic leaders abroad".[24]
Activities in Israel
Like his father and grandfather before him, the Rebbe served as president of the Kollel Vohlin (Association of Ukrainian Jews in Palestine), distributing large amounts of charity money in Israel each year.[25] He also gave all the pidyonos (redemption-money) he received from people giving him kvitlach to the Boyaner chesed fund, earmarked for the poor in Israel. Like all descendants of the Ruzhiner dynasty, he carried a Turkish passport that identified him as a citizen of Palestine.[26] Although he desired to resettle in Israel, he was unable to do so due to poor health.[27]
The Rebbe visited Israel four times, in 1949, 1953, 1958 and 1960. On his first trip, he visited his brother Rabbi Yisroel, the Boyaner Rebbe of Leipzig and Tel Aviv, whom he hadn't seen in 22 years. On two later visits, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo took the honor of lighting the first bonfire at the
In 1948 the Ruzhiner
Final years and succession
In his last years the Rebbe suffered from severe arthritis and a heart condition.[30] After suffering a stroke in 1967, he moved to the Upper West Side to be near his children. Another kloiz was established on the ground floor of the apartment building where he spent his final years.[1] He continued to see his Hasidim and participate in communal affairs despite his failing health.[31] He died after another stroke on 2 March 1971 (5 Adar 5731).[32] Tens of thousands accompanied his bier in a funeral procession in the streets of Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, where he was buried at night on the heights of the mountain.[9] His wife predeceased him a few months earlier.[32]
The Rebbe's death left the Boyaner Hasidim leaderless. The Rebbe's brother Avrohom Yaakov, the Boyaner Rebbe in Lemberg, and the successors of his brother Rabbi Menachem Nachum, the Boyaner Rebbes in Chernowitz, had all been murdered by the Nazis, while his brother Rabbi Yisroel, the Boyaner Rebbe in Leipzig/Tel Aviv, had had only daughters and was not succeeded by his sons-in-law.
His followers approached the Rebbe's eldest son, Yisroel, to become the next Rebbe, but he declined. The Hasidim then asked the Rebbe's daughter Malka and her husband, Rabbi Dr. Menachem Mendel Brayer, a lecturer at Yeshiva University, to offer one of their two young sons for the leadership. The eldest, Yigal, an aerospace engineer, was suggested and then rejected. The lot fell to the younger son, Nachum Dov (born 1959[33]), who then enrolled at the Ruzhiner yeshiva in Jerusalem to prepare himself for the task.[34] On Hanukkah 1984, at the age of 25, Rabbi Nachum Dov Brayer was crowned Boyaner Rebbe.[35] The Hasidut is now headquartered in Jerusalem, where the Rebbe resides.
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Besser, Yisroel. "Miracle on the Lower East Side: From the Boyan of his childhood, Rav Mordechai Shlomo of Boyan created an oasis for America's early chassidim". Mishpacha, 10 October 2011, pp. 114–128.
- ^ Friedman 2000, p. 109.
- ^ Rabinowicz 1996, p. 140.
- ^ a b Brayer 2003, p. 442.
- ^ Eisenberg 2006, p. 123.
- ^ Saltiel, Manny (2011). "Gedolim Yahrzeits: Adar". chinuch.org. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ Friedman 2000, p. 111.
- ^ Friedman 2000, p. 112.
- ^ a b c d e Rossoff 2005, pp. 315–316.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 443.
- ^ The New York Times biographical service, Volume. The New York Times & Arno Press. 1971. p. 617.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 443–444.
- ^ Friedman 2000, pp. 113–115.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 475.
- ^ Friedman 2000, p. 117.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 467.
- ^ Zuroff 2000, p. 241.
- ^ "Photos of the Rabbi's March on Washington". The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. 2005. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- ^ Friedman 2000, p. 125.
- ^ Rakeffet-Rothkoff 1981, p. 163.
- ^ a b Brayer 2003, p. 461.
- ^ a b Friedman 2000, p. 121.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 468.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 444.
- ^ Brayer 2003, pp. 448–449.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 450.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 454.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 263.
- ^ Brayer 2003, p. 459.
- ^ Friedman 2000, p. 127.
- ^ Friedman 2000, pp. 127–129.
- ^ a b Friedman 2000, p. 130.
- ^ Finkel 1994, p. 194.
- ^ Mintz 1992, p. 76.
- ^ Tannenbaum, Rabbi Gershon (7 July 2010). "Boyaner Rebbe". The Jewish Press. Retrieved 26 October 2011.[permanent dead link]
Sources
- Brayer, Rabbi Menachem (2003). The House of Rizhin: Chassidus and the Rizhiner dynasty. ISBN 1-57819-794-5.
- Eisenberg, Ronald (2006). The Streets of Jerusalem: Who, what, why. Devora Publishing. ISBN 1-932687-54-8.
- Finkel, Avrohom Yaakov (1994). Contemporary Sages: The great Chasidic masters of the twentieth century. J. Aronson. p. 194. ISBN 1-56821-155-4.
- Friedman, Yisroel (2000). The Golden Dynasty: Ruzhin, the royal house of Chassidus (2nd ed.). Jerusalem: The Kest-Lebovits Jewish Heritage and Roots Library.
- Mintz, Jerome R. (1992). Hasidic People: A place in the new world. Harvard University Press. pp. 77–83. ISBN 0-674-38115-7.
- Rabinowicz, Tzvi (1996). The Encyclopedia of Hasidism. Jason Aronson. ISBN 1-56821-123-6.
- Rakeffet-Rothkoff, Aaron (1981). The Silver Era in American Jewish Orthodoxy: Rabbi Eliezer Silver and his generation. Yeshiva University Press. ISBN 0-87306-274-4.
- Rossoff, Dovid (2005). קדושים אשר בארץ: קברי צדיקים בירושלים ובני ברק [The Holy Ones in the Earth: Graves of Tzaddikim in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak] (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Machon Otzar HaTorah.
- ISBN 0-88125-666-8.