The Malachim were far more than a Chassidus; they were the malachim, the angels sent from on High to prepare this country for a brilliant future.
The “Malachim” of Williamsburg
“Don’t rock the boat!” they were told. “Don’t make a scene!” they were warned. But despite the antagonism, a small group of determined young Jews continued to circle about pre-war Williamsburg with flowing beards, long coats, and endless veneration for their leader, Rav Chaim Avraham Dov Ber HaKohein Levine, whom they termed “the Malach.” Yisroel Besser paints a riveting portrait of the fearless Malachim and their battle against compromise
For Reb Ben Zion Weberman, it was a defining moment in his life. Right here, on the impure soil of the new world, he had found a figure so intense, so forceful and strong, as to make him believe that it was possible. There was a hope that his children, and their children as well, might grow up like Yidden had for hundreds of years in Europe, that the values and norms of the Old World might have a home here as well.
Reb Ben Zion was an anomaly: a lawyer by training and profession, he was one of the founders of Yeshivah Torah Vodaath, yet he yearned for the shtetl. Even as he watched a generation of clean-cut American yeshivah boys take root here, in America, he wasn’t satisfied. He wanted more; more of a barrier between the boys and the American youth. He wanted them to be as different from their secular compatriots as angels are from men.
It was his father, Reb Moshe Weberman, who discovered the saintly European Rav with the angelic countenance. On a summer visit to Kantrowitz’s hotel in upstate New York, Reb Moshe first beheld Rav Chaim Avraham Dov Ber HaKohein Levine, or “The Malach.”
Create a free account to keep reading.
