He Wore the Crown

Titles and positions can be deceiving. Though he officially served as a local community rabbi, Rav Kelemer was a world-class talmid chacham. He spent multiple years as chavrusa to Rav Mordechai Gifter ztz”l, rosh yeshivah of Telz, becoming an expert in Yevamos and sugyos of Ishus. The Kelemer family possess letters from Rav Moshe Feinstein seeking input from Rav Kelemer on these complex topics, and Rav Kelemer’s intricate sefer on the kesubah, published when he was in his thirties, has Rav Moshe’s approbation.

Rav Kelemer, who was learning in the Mir when his mother passed away, didn’t return to America for the levayah.   Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz felt his presence in the beis medrash was too important to the yeshivah. When Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik of Boston was unavailable to deal with complex questions, he referred people to Rav Kelemer, who was in his late twenties then. A prominent rosh yeshivah recently shared with me how he was blown away by an obscure source that Rav Kelemer shared with him to illuminate the sugya of chazakah in mitzvos. In fact, I was once offered a prominent rabbinical position primarily because Rav Kelemer was my mentor and posek.

Rav Kelemer’s predecessor was Rabbi Sholom Gold, who announced his upcoming aliyah in the early 1980s, and my father was on the search committee when Rav Kelemer applied to fill the position. One of the questions the committee asked the candidates was whether they would eat out in congregants’ homes. Rav Kelemer deftly responded that he doubted “anyone wants to host myself, my wife, and my 12 children.” The search committee even received a letter from the Young Israel of Brookline, where Rav Kelemer had been serving as rabbi, begging them not to accept Rav Kelemer’s candidacy so that he wouldn’t leave Boston.

Rav Kelemer went on to become the mara d’asra of the entire West Hempstead. Although West Hempstead grew exponentially over the next few decades and shuls opened on both sides of town, everyone still deferred to Rav Kelemer.