She went through life making friends. At the phone-in shivah, her daughters recorded a stream of women who identified themselves as Hennie’s best friends.
W
hen mechutanim, friends, neighbors, bungalow colony mates, and acquaintances all feel embraced like family, the loss of an especially warm, vibrant personality such as Mrs. Hennie Mandelbaum is a huge vacuum.
Mrs. Hennie Mandelbaum grew up in Boro Park, daughter of Reb Yosef Baruch and Esther Glikman (formerly Rubin). Her father, son of the Sosnewiecen Rav, was a survivor of numerous concentration camps, while her mother spent the war years hidden in a monastery. The couple were direct descendants of Rebbishe dynasties, such as Belz, Lelov, Ropshitz, and Chantsheen, and they built a family in America along the traditions of their glorious legacy.
Hennie attended the Sarah Schenirer school in Boro Park, then, in 1972, she spent a formative year at BJJ. The Glikman home was balebatish and while the concept of kollel was not in vogue at the time, Hennie was determined to marry a boy who was in learning, and she was happy to move to wherever her husband could learn best. Rabbi Mordechai Mandelbaum, a talmid of Torah Vodaath and Beth Medrash Govoha, the son of Rav Berish Mandelbaum (a talmid chacham best known as the Yeshiva University librarian), was the answer to her prayers. After their marriage, they moved to Lakewood.
For 15 years, Rabbi Mandelbaum learned in Beth Medrash Govoha, as a close talmid of Rav Schneur Kotler. The Lakewood community was small, and centered around the yeshivah. Chalav Yisrael and poultry were brought in from Brooklyn. Mrs. Mandelbaum happily looked away from life’s luxuries and took joy in fulfilling her dream.
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