His Father’s Footsteps

Rav Yosef Tzvi began his tenure as rav in 1936, just a few short years before Europe went up in flames. He personally witnessed the crazed rioters dragging sifrei Torah from the aron kodesh of his shul and setting them aflame. When he tried to challenge them, they beat him mercilessly. Fully understanding the danger looming ahead, Rav Yosef Tzvi nevertheless chose to remain in Germany. The people needed a rav and he was determined to be there for his kehillah, even if that meant dying for the cause.

When the Nazis came for him, Rav Yosef turned to 16-year-old Shlomo and the two embraced. It was an expression of love that Rav Shlomo would carry forever.

Rav Shlomo survived the war, and arrived in America in 1947 after having endured the torture of multiple concentration camps. He was alone, orphaned, and penniless, but all he wanted was to go to yeshivah. It had been six years since he held a Gemara in his hands, but that didn’t deter him. He met with Rav Yitzchok Hutner, rosh yeshivah of Yeshivah Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, who asked him to recite any mishnah, and that would constitute his farher. An incredible masmid, Rav Shlomo quickly made up for lost time.

Rav Shlomo carried himself with princely dignity, and, in 1953 was introduced to Maude Katzenstein, a daughter of one of the most prominent families in the Breuer’s kehillah of Washington Heights, Rav Yosef Breuer once noted the heightened level of tzniyus she observed at a young age and commented, “I see you’re on your way to becoming a Bais Yaakov girl!”