Rav Avrohom Ausband ztz”l wasa world-class talmid chacham, manhig, and mensch
HEwasn’t my rebbi. He wasn’t my rosh yeshivah. I likely heard no more than two or three dozen in-person shiurim or shmuessen from him. But living across the hall from Rav Avrohom Ausband ztz”l, the founder and rosh yeshivah of Telshe-Riverdale whose yahrtzeit is 2 Elul, gave me a clear view, literally and figuratively, of a world-class talmid chacham, manhig, and mensch.
In the summer of 2011, when I was a single law school student, I moved from Flatbush to Riverdale to be a night dorm counselor. Unbeknownst to me, the dormitory was located in a residential apartment building that was also home to both Rav Ausband and ybdlch”t Rav Mordechai Willig, rosh yeshivah of Yeshiva University and rav of Young Israel of Riverdale, and their families.
I also did not expect to live there for nine years, including as a newlywed, one flight up. But Rav Ausband was a shachein tov, a good neighbor in every sense, and in the close-knit Riverdale community, I was privileged to build a relationship with him and that elevated and enriched me.
But before discussing his personal interactions, we have to consider his communal impact. Yeshivas Talmidei Telshe, better known as Telshe-Riverdale or just “Riverdale,” was founded in Westwood, New Jersey in 1981 and moved to Riverdale in 1984. Remarkably for a fledgling institution, it rapidly emerged as a premier yeshivah, drawing many applicants. There is no US News and World Report ranking for yeshivos, yet for as far back as I can recall, Riverdale has stood among the preeminent pre-Eretz Yisrael American yeshivos.
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