Mordechai Shlomo Friedman

Mordechai Shlomo Friedman
Boyaner Rebbe of New York
Term	November 1927 – 2 March 1971
Full name	Mordechai Shlomo Friedman
Born	15 October 1891 Boyan
Died	March 2, 1971(1971-03-02) (aged 79) New York City
Buried	Mount of Olives, Jerusalem
Predecessor	Rabbi Yitzchok Friedman
Successor	Rabbi Nachum Dov Brayer
Father	Rabbi Yitzchok Friedman
Mother	Malka Twersky
Wife	Chava Sara Heschel
Children	Yisroel Malka Yitzchok

Mordechai Shlomo Friedman (15 October 1891, Boyan – 2 March 1971, New York City)^[1], sometimes called Solomon Mordecai Friedman, was the Boyaner Rebbe of New York for over 40 years. He was the youngest son of the founder and first Rebbe of the Boyan Hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Yitzchok Friedman (known as the Pachad Yitzchok), and the grandson of the founder of the Ruzhin Hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzhin. In 1927 he became one of the first Hasidic Rebbes in America, establishing his court on the Lower East Side of New York City and attracting many American Jewish youth with his charismatic and warm personality. He also played a role in American Jewish leadership with positions on Agudath Israel of America, the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and Holocaust rescue organizations. In 1957 he built the flagship Ruzhiner yeshiva, Tiferes Yisroel, at the top of Malkhei Yisrael Street in Jerusalem.

Early life

Mordechai Shlomo Friedman was born in the town of Boiany (Boyan) where his father, Rabbi Yitzchok, presided as the first Boyaner Rebbe. His mother was the daughter of Rabbi Yochanan Twersky, the Rachmastrivka Rebbe. He was named after his maternal great-grandfather, Rabbi Mordechai of Chernobyl, and his father's brother, Rabbi Shlomo of Sadigura.^[1] He had three older brothers^[2] and a sister.

At the age of 10 he was engaged to Chava Sara, daughter of Rabbi Israel Shalom Yosef Heschel, the Mezhbizher Rebbe. They were married eight years later.^[1][3] They had two sons, Yisroel and Yitzchok, and a daughter, Malka.^[4]

Move to America

At the beginning of World War I, the Russian army entered Boiany and destroyed the Jewish neighborhood. The Boyaner Rebbe and his family fled to Vienna,^[5] where the Rebbe died in March 1917. After the war ended, each of his sons moved to a different country to establish their court. The eldest, Rabbi Menachem Nachum (1869–1936), became the Boyaner Rebbe of Chernowitz, Bukovina. The second son, Rabbi Yisrael (1878–1951), became the Boyaner Rebbe of Leipzig, Germany, and later, Tel Aviv. The third son, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov (1884–1941), became the Boyaner Rebbe of Lemberg, Poland.^[6]

The youngest son, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo, remained in Vienna with his mother until her death in 1922.^[7] At that point he entertained an offer to head the Hasidic community of Drohobych in Western Ukraine, and another to lead an organized chaburah (group) of Boyaner Hasidim on New York's Lower East Side.^[4] The American group maintained a small kloiz (synagogue) where they gathered on the yahrtzeits of their rebbes. From time to time, this group would send one of their own to visit the Boyaner Rebbe in Boiany and bring back spiritual nourishment for his fellows. After World War II the president of this group, Mordechai Cohen, traveled to Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo in Vienna and begged him to visit the Boyaner Hasidim in America. Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo acquiesced and embarked on an 11-month pilot trip beginning in December 1925, visiting several New York neighborhoods as well as Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. He was feted with a large farewell gathering at the kloiz before his return to Europe.^[1]

For the next year, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo weighed the pros and cons of relocating to America. He consulted with his uncle, Rabbi Yisrael Friedman of Chortkov, and his eldest brother, Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernowitz, who both encouraged him to make the move.^[1][8] He and his family arrived in New York in November 1927.^[9] On Hanukkah of that year, the Boyaner Hasidim called a meeting to raise money for the purchase of the building at 247 East Broadway as a kloiz.^[1] This building housed a beis medrash with accommodations for up to 175 worshippers.^[10] In keeping with Ruzhiner custom, the Rebbe spent most of his time in prayer and study in a separate room called the daven shtiebel (prayer room). There was also a tish room, and apartments upstairs for the Rebbe and his family.^[1]

The Boyaner kloiz became an island of sanctity on the teeming streets of the Lower East Side.^[1] The Rebbe succeeded in uniting the Ruzhin-Boyan survivors of the Holocaust and proved that Hasidut could be a viable lifestyle in America.^[11] The Rebbe was a charismatic personality who exuded the sense of nobility and spiritual loftiness characteristic of rebbes of the Boyaner dynasty, yet he also displayed a warmth and paternal concern that appealed to many American Jewish youth who had never seen a rebbe before. The Rebbe inspired many secular Jewish youth to become ba'alei teshuvah (returnees to the faith).^[1][12][13]

Leadership

The Rebbe took an active role in American Jewish leadership. He was a founder^[14] and president of the Agudath HaAdmorim (Union of Grand Rabbis) of the United States, in which capacity he participated in the Rabbi's March on Washington in 1943.^[15] He was the first vice president of Agudath Israel of America^[16][17] and a member of that body's Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.^[18] In conjunction with Agudath HaRabbanim, he helped organize the Vaad Hatzalah during World War II and assisted the rescue of Torah leaders in Poland and Eastern Europe.^[18][19] After the war, he was elected president of Vaad HaEzra, in which capacity he raised funds to help Holocaust survivors in post-war Europe.^[20][19] He was respected by every segment of the Jewish world, including "misnagdim, the yeshivah world, baalebatim, the modern intelligentsia…the other chassidic leaders who arrived later to the American shores, as well as the rabbinic leaders abroad".^[21]

Activities in Israel

Like his father and grandfather before him, the Rebbe served as president of the Kollel Vohlin (Association of Ukrainian Jews in Palestine), distributing large amounts of charity money in Israel each year.^[22] He also gave all the pidyonos (redemption-money) he received from people giving him kvitlach to the Boyaner chesed fund, earmarked for the poor in Israel. Like all descendants of the Ruzhiner dynasty, he carried a Turkish passport that identified him as a citizen of Palestine.^[23] Although he desired to resettle in Israel, he was unable to due to poor health.^[24]

In 1948 the Ruzhiner synagogue in Jerusalem, Tiferes Yisroel (also called the Nissan Beck Shul), which was completed by the Sadigura Rebbe, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman, in 1872^[25] and which was the tallest building in the Old City, was destroyed by the Arab Legion during the 1948 Israel War of Independence. On his 1953 trip to Israel, the Boyaner Rebbe of New York began planning the construction of a new Ruzhiner yeshiva, to be called Tiferes Yisroel, as a new Hasidic center for Torah study. With the support of all of the Rebbes of the Ruzhiner dynasty, this yeshiva was opened in 1957 in Jerusalem at the top of Malkhei Yisrael Street.^[26]

Final years and succession

In his last years the Rebbe suffered from severe arthritis and a heart condition.^[27] After suffering a stroke in 1967, he moved to the Upper West Side to be near his children. Another kloiz was established on the ground floor of the apartment building where he spent his final years.^[1] He continued to see his Hasidim and participate in communal affairs despite his failing health.^[28] He died of another stroke on 2 March 1971 (5 Adar 5731)^[29] and was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.^[1] His wife preceded him in death a few months earlier.^[29]

The Rebbe's death left the Boyaner Hasidim leaderless. The Rebbe's brother Avrohom Yaakov, the Boyaner Rebbe in Lemberg, and the successors of his brother Rabbi Menachem Nachum, the Boyaner Rebbes in Chernowitz, had all been murdered by the Nazis, while his brother Rabbi Yisrael, the Boyaner Rebbe in Leipzig/Tel Aviv, had had only daughters and was not succeeded by his sons-in-law.

His followers approached the Rebbe's eldest son, Yisrael, to become the next Rebbe, but he declined. The Hasidim then asked the Rebbe's daughter Malka and her husband, Rabbi Dr. Menachem Mendel Brayer, a lecturer at Yeshiva University, to offer one of their two young sons for the leadership. The eldest, Yigal, an aerospace engineer, was suggested and then rejected. The lot fell to the younger son, Nachum Dov (born 1959^[30]), who then enrolled at the Ruzhiner yeshiva in Jerusalem to prepare himself for the task.^[31] On Hanukkah 1984, at the age of 25, Rabbi Nachum Dov Brayer was coronated Boyaner Rebbe.^[32] The Hasidut is now headquartered in Jerusalem, where the Rebbe resides.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Besser, Yisroel. "Miracle on the Lower East Side: From the Boyan of his childhood, Rav Mordechai Shlomo of Boyan created an oasis for America's early chassidim". Mishpacha, 10 October 2011, pp. 114–128.
2. ^ Friedman, Yisroel. The Golden Dynasty: Ruzhin, the royal house of Chassidus. Jerusalem: The Kest-Lebovits Jewish Heritage and Roots Library, 2nd English edition, 2000, p. 109.
3. ^ Rabinowicz, Tzvi (1996). The Encyclopedia of Hasidism. Jason Aronson. p. 140. ISBN 1568211236. http://books.google.com/books?id=OprXAAAAMAAJ&q=isaac+friedman+boyan&dq=isaac+friedman+boyan&hl=en. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Brayer, Rabbi Menachem (2003). The House of Rizhin: Chassidus and the Rizhiner dynasty. Mesorah Publications. p. 442. ISBN 1578197945. http://books.google.com/books?id=ARYRAQAAIAAJ&q=boyaner+rebbe&dq=boyaner+rebbe&hl=en. 
5. ^ Eisenberg, Ronald (September 2006). The Streets of Jerusalem: Who, what, why. Devora Publishing. p. 123. ISBN 1932687548. http://books.google.com/books?id=yqXXD_74yAEC&pg=PA123&dq=isaac+friedman+boyan&hl=en#v=onepage&q=isaac%20friedman%20boyan&f=false. 
6. ^ Saltiel, Manny (2011). "Gedolim Yahrzeits: Adar". chinuch.org. http://chinuch.org/AdarI.php. Retrieved 15 November 2011. 
7. ^ Friedman, The Golden Dynasty, p. 111.
8. ^ Friedman, The Golden Dynasty, p. 112.
9. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 443.
10. ^ "The New York Times biographical service, Volume". The New York Times & Arno Press. 1971. p. 617. http://books.google.com/books?id=dR9BAQAAIAAJ&dq=isaac+friedman+boyan&q=boyan. 
11. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 475.
12. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 443–444.
13. ^ Friedman, The Golden Dynasty, pp. 113–115.
14. ^ Zuroff, Efraim (2000). The Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust: The activities of the Vaad ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1939-1945. Michael Scharf Publication Trust of the Yeshiva University Press. p. 241. ISBN 0881256668. http://books.google.com/books?id=Te9mAAAAMAAJ&q=boyaner+rebbe&dq=boyaner+rebbe&hl=en. 
15. ^ "Photos of the Rabbi's March on Washington". The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. 2005. http://www.wymaninstitute.org/special/rabbimarch/pg08photos.php. Retrieved 26 October 2011. 
16. ^ Friedman, The Golden Dynasty, p. 125.
17. ^ Rakeffet-Rothkoff, Aaron (1981). The Silver Era in American Jewish Orthodoxy: Rabbi Eliezer Silver and his generation. Yeshiva University Press. p. 163. ISBN 0873062744. http://books.google.com/books?id=EereAAAAMAAJ&q=boyaner+rebbe&dq=boyaner+rebbe&hl=en. 
18. ^ ^{a b} Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 461.
19. ^ ^{a b} Friedman, The Golden Dynasty, p. 121.
20. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 468.
21. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 444.
22. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 448–449.
23. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 450.
24. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 454.
25. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 263.
26. ^ Brayer, The House of Rizhin, p. 459.
27. ^ Friedman, The Golden Dynasty, p. 127.
28. ^ Friedman, The Golden Dynasty, pp. 127–129.
29. ^ ^{a b} Friedman, The Golden Dynasty, p. 130.
30. ^ Finkel, Avrohom Yaakov (1994). Contemporary Sages: The great Chasidic masters of the twentieth century. J. Aronson. p. 194. ISBN 1568211554. http://books.google.com/books?id=QpjXAAAAMAAJ&dq=boyaner+rebbe&q=nachum+dov+1959. 
31. ^ Mintz, Jerome R. (November 1992). Hasidic People: A place in the new world. Harvard University Press. pp. 77–83. ISBN 0674381157. http://books.google.com/books?id=uEP5KNUAFh0C&pg=PA76&dq=boyaner+rebbe&hl=en#v=onepage&q=boyaner%20rebbe&f=false. 
32. ^ Tannenbaum, Rabbi Gershon (7 July 2010). "Boyaner Rebbe". The Jewish Press. http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/44430/. Retrieved 26 October 2011. 

External links

• "Boyan Hasidim pay tribute to Rebbe on Mt. of Olives" (video)