The twin legacies of Torah and chesed ofAntwerp’s Rav Chaim Kreiswirth ztz"l will always endure
Yet to the individuals he impacted and the wider community he transformed, Rav Kreiswirth was an unforgettable influence. He’s described as a “cheftza fun chesed — an object of kindness,” who knew no limits in caring for individuals and the downtrodden. His brilliance in learning was paired with a focus on bringing Torah to the front and center of communal consciousness, and his oratory brought mussar to life.
On a trip to Antwerp, where Rav Kreiswirth was rav for almost 50 years, we met with his close disciple Rav Boruch Wasyng, rav of the Beis Yaccov shul and maggid shiur emeritus in Eitz Chaim yeshivah of Wilrijk; and with Mr. Issy Morsel, diamantaire, askan, and chairman of the kehillah’s Yesodei HaTorah school, who was drawn close to Rav Kreiswirth and cowrote a sefer about his towering personality.
Rav Kreiswirth leading his son, Rav Dov Tzvi, to the chuppah together with his mechutan, the Pittsburgher Rebbe, Rav Avrohom Abba Leifer. (Rav Dov Tzvi, rosh yeshivah of Toras Chaim in Jerusalem in memory of his father, passed away in 2021)
Today, Rav Boruch Wasyng is one of Antwerp’s most respected talmidei chachamim. But in 1954, as a young child standing among the row of schoolboys who flanked the path along which the new rav of the town would walk into Antwerp’s historic shul for his inauguration, he never expected Torah study to be his future vocation. He didn’t realize then that Rav Kreiswirth’s influence would determine his future.
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