While the neighborhoods have changed, old Cincinnati still echoes with the imprint of Rav Eliezer Silver
The spot where Rav Silver’s shul once stood at the corner of Washington and Rockdale Avenues is now the home of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati. There is no sign that a majestic synagogue once stood on that spot but for Mr. Eichelberg a local community askan who helped build many of Cincinnati’s shuls over the years the memories are fresh. “A rebbi is forever ” Mr. Eichelberg declares (Photos: Laky Majeski Marc Randolph & The Cincinnati Judaica Fund)
R av Eliezer Silver is best known for leading the Vaad Hatzalah during World War II but fewer remember him as a community rav.
Mr. Hugo Eichelberg now 87 was one of those who could call Rav Silver his rebbi. As a young man Mr. Eichelberg attended Knesseth Israel where Rav Silver led the congregation for 37 years.
Those long-ago days were the subject of a recent tour in Cincinnati conducted by the Cincinnati Judaica Fund and Congregation Zichron Eliezer the successor congregation to Knesseth Israel (or KI as the old-timers still call it) and the biggest shul in Cincinnati. Rabbi Silver’s shul was rededicated in his name when it moved to its current home in 2009.
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