LIFESTYLE → ON SITE Issue 812 · May 26, 2020

The Vault is Open 

Famed gadol photographer Moshe Dovid Yarmishopens his vault of priceless gedolim photos, his iconic images of a nation’s leaders

The Vault is Open 

First through private correspondence and groups, and eventually, on social media, each new offering shot through the frum world like a meteor: a jolt of holy nostalgia, a reminder of the generals of a generation ago. It wasn’t just the luminous faces of tzaddikim that gripped us, it was the time — the people around them, the cars and furniture and worn seforim.

I suspect I’m not the only one who watched each clip more than once, looking for clues and finding the comfort Reb Moshe Dovid had hoped to provide.

“I Still Feel the Fear”

As a bochur in Torah Vodaath, Moshe Dovid came in to the industry out of love: he always enjoyed taking pictures, and his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Tzvi (Harry) Bronstein — hero of Russian Jewry, activist, shul rabbi and author of seforim — provided him with access to the gedolim of the era.

It was with Rabbi Bronstein that Moshe Dovid earned entry to the Steipler Gaon, Rav Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky.

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