“This letter writer... seems to be seriously misinformed regarding the nature of woke ideology, Jewish history, and Torah hashkafah”
Thank you for an excellent historic article on Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, the “Father of America’s Yeshivos.” The authors mentioned many yeshivos with which Mr. Mendlowitz shared his own talmidim, helping so many yeshivos in America get started.
I heard from Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman ztz”l who told me personally about Rav Shraga Feivel traveling a number of hours by train for the groundbreaking or possibly the inauguration ceremony of Yeshivas Ner Israel in Baltimore in the 1930s. Rav Shraga arrived with a generous donation for the new yeshivah and also sent talmidim to learn there.
Missing from Mishpacha’s article is Rav Shraga’s love for Eretz Yisrael and his dream of entering the Land. When Rav Yitchok Gerstenkorn, the founder, builder, and first mayor of Bnei Brak, came to the States to raise funds for the city, he was not successful — until Rav Shraga befriended him and introduced him to family, friends, and contributors to participate in building the agricultural settlement on the sand dunes near Tel Aviv.
Rav Shraga was niftar in August 1948, three months after the declaration of the state that he strongly advocated for. Israel was at the height of its War of Independence, therefore his wish to be buried in Eretz Yisrael could not be fulfilled. Rav Shraga was buried al tenai in America, and after the war, once air travel was resumed, his son-in-law, Rabbi Alexander Linchner, brought his remains for kevurah to Eretz Yisrael, to Bnei Brak, the city he helped build.
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