In tribute to my rebbi, Rabbi Ezra Dovid Halevi Neuberger
Among those who lingered was a 13-year-old boy who would one day become the camp’s director, Rabbi Pinchos Munk. He still remembers that moment vividly. “We figured that if Ezra had something to say, it was worth listening to,” he recalls. What followed was unforgettable. For the next seven hours, that small group of 25 boys remained spellbound as Ezra sat on a rock outside the beis medrash, surrounded by the breathtaking scenery of Camp Munk, and spoke from the depths of his heart. He wove together divrei Chazal on the Churban, stories and lessons from the Holocaust, and insights on life that reached far beyond his years. One of the boys who sat in that shiur, now an adult in his sixties, shares that he still remembers what he learned that day.
“I still remember one yesod. I’ve repeated it many times since: The closer you come to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the more you realize how far away you really are.”
By the time the sun set on that Tishah B’Av afternoon, the boys realized they had witnessed something extraordinary. This was no ordinary bochur. It was the beginning of a lifetime of teaching, guiding, and inspiring that would continue to illuminate thousands of lives for decades to come.
Almost 50 years later, on a rainy morning in Baltimore, I found myself on a shuttle bus heading from BWI Airport to the rental car lot. Around me were about 25 others from all over the country; Atlanta, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee, all heading to the same destination. By the time the levayah in Yeshivas Ner Yisroel began, we would be joined by hundreds more who had traveled from every corner of the country and even abroad. Some had come alone, others with family or friends, but all with the same mission — to give kavod acharon to their rebbi, Rabbi Ezra Dovid Halevi Neuberger, who passed away on 7 Cheshvan at age 68, known lovingly to decades of talmidim as Rav Ezra.
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