The Story Is Torah

A chapter ended Shabbos, parshas Matos-Masei, with the passing of Rebbetzin Reichel Berenbaum. It was a chapter seeped both in rich history and in the Torah world of today.

Rebbetzin Berenbaum was the daughter of Rav Avraham Kalmanowitz, a man known not only for his gaonus, but also for his involvement in the klal. Rav Kalmanowitz worked tirelessly to save his brothers and sisters living in Egypt, Syria, as well as those caught in the Nazi net. It was largely due to his efforts that the Mir yeshivah was able to find refuge first in Kobe, Japan and then in Shanghai, China.

He gave that sense of achrayus, that sense of family over to his children, and Reichel was no exception.

“My mother in law’s home was open to all sorts of people, from every walk of life,” shares her daughter-in-law. “She provided like a mother for the talmidim of the yeshivah, she was heavily involved in shidduchim, and she supported her husband’s Torah in every manner possible.”