"A surgeon does G-d’s work and a rabbi does G-d’s work, so I’m also your colleague!”
Dedicated in memory of Rabbi Yaakov Spiegel a”h
Rabbi Yaakov Speigel was the rav of the Romanisher Shul on the Lower East Side (also known as the First Roumanian-American Congregation and officially called Shaarei Shamayim) from 1981 to 2001. In addition to being one of the largest shuls to serve the burgeoning Lower East Side from the time it was founded in 1885 by a group of frum Romanian immigrants, the shul — with seating for 1,800 — was famous for the world-acclaimed chazzanim who performed there: Yossele Rosenblatt, Moshe Osher, Moshe Koussevitzky and others, giving rise to its nickname, the “Jewish Carnegie Hall.” By the 1940s, the congregation’s membership was in the thousands — but back then Rabbi Spiegel was just a child. By the time he was hired to regenerate the famed shul on Rivington Street in the 1980s, most Orthodox Jews had long relocated to Brooklyn, Queens, and further out, leaving him with a grand building and a tiny membership. Regardless, Rabbi Spiegel rejuvenated the place, reviving some of the former life and Yiddishkeit that once flourished on Rivington Street and beyond.
The shul was assured a morning and evening minyan during the week, made up primarily of the neighborhood’s businessmen, but the glorious main sanctuary became too expensive to maintain, so Shabbos davening was held in the downstairs social hall. The building was demolished in 2006, five years after Rabbi Spiegel passed away, after extensive water damage caused the roof to collapse.
The size of the kehillah, though, never seemed to faze Rabbi Spiegel. For him, it was about every individual to whom he could be of assistance.
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