Rabbi Mordechai Kobre, zt"l, was brought to his final
rest last week in Jerusalem. Rabbi Kobre, who was 77 at the
time of his petirah, was an important figure in Torah
education in the United States.
Rabbi Mordechai Kobre, son of Reb Yosef Eliezer, was born in
the United States in 5683 (1923). Despite the spiritual
poverty prevailing at the time in the United States, his
family remained staunch in its faith with a warm, exemplary
Torah home. Here Reb Mordechai imbibed the ideals of
emunas chachomim and ahavas habriyos.
He studied chemistry in his youth. But when he saw that
Jewish children were not receiving pure and proper Torah
educations, he left his studies and dedicated himself to
rectifying that lack. He was asked to serve as the assistant
principal of the large Jewish school of the East Side and he
was very successful in that capacity.
When he heard that there was no Jewish education in
Rochester, New York, and only a handful of families was
interested in genuine Jewish education, he set out to that
city to change the this within the framework of Torah
Umesorah. He made great efforts to broaden the circle of
families interested in giving their children a Torah
education, at a time when it was regarded with derision by
most of United States Jewry -- most of whom were detached
from Torah and mitzvos. He and another young educator arrived
in Rochester at the beginning of the summer and went from
house to house to "sell" Jewish education. By the beginning
of the school year, approximately 120 children had enrolled
in the school.
Rabbi Kobre headed Rochester's Jewish educational
institutions for four years, by which time its enrollment had
swelled to 250 students. At that time he left Rochester in
order to assist other budding educational institutions. Due
to the school's influence, a spiritual revolution took place
in the city, and many Rochester residents became shomrei
Torah.
Upon retirement, he decided to devote himself solely to
Torah: "What I didn't manage to do in my youth, I will do
now," he told his family. He then began to study like a
ben yeshiva, with a fixed daily schedule in Shas,
halocho and mussar. In that period merited to
complete the Shas twice, thanking Hashem for having
him granted him the privilege of devoting his life to Torah
and the chinuch of Jewish children.
Although he was not in good health for his entire life, his
emunah remained staunch. He would constantly tell his
family how one must thank Hashem for every moment in which
one does not need medical care, and that illnesses were meant
to illustrate how grateful we should be to Hashem for our
every breath.
He merited to establish a fine family, and to see his sons
and offspring continuing along the path he charted for them
throughout his life.
