In the Right Direction  

The refugees who staggered off the ships in New York after finally leaving blood-drenched Europe had made it through the war with their bodies intact, but their spiritual lives were in danger.

Shlomo Friedmann was an immigrant himself, with no financial or organizational backing, but dozens of men owe their yeshivah education to a man who cared enough to show up when they were at the crossroads

Rabbi Avraham Kleinkaufman of Far Rockaway, a maggid shiur in Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin and in Yeshiva of Far Rockaway, was just nine years old when he encountered the man who changed the trajectory of his entire life.

Orphaned of his father, he and his mother, Shaindel Kleinkaufman, stepped off the General Langfitt onto Pier 54 in New York. After fleeing with her young child to Uzbekistan during the war and years in a DP camp, Mrs. Kleinkaufman was hoping to finally find stability for herself and her son in the goldeneh medineh.

As they joined the crowd of disembarking passengers, a 24-year-old young man in a light brown suit and hat noticed young Avremel’s peyos and strode up to them.

“Excuse me,” he approached them, clipboard in hand. “Vos tracht ihr tzu tun mit ayer zohn [What are you planning to do with your son]?” he asked in a pronounced German accent.