The late HaRav Chaim Yaakov Rottenberg appears in an old photo taken at a ceremony in which he assumed the post of rov of the Association of Chareidi Kehillos in Paris. A group of well-heeled baalei battim, mostly under the leadership of Rav Dovid Yisroel Gertner and Rav Weiss, brought HaRav Rottenberg over from Antwerp in 5725 (1965) to serve as the rov and av beis din of the chareidi kehillos at the shul on Rue Pave.
Nobody believed he could succeed in revitalizing the post-War community spiritually, but a few years later HaRav Rottenberg could be seen at a ceremony to award semichoh to his first group of students groomed for the rabbinate. The camera shifts from the ceremony at the old beis knesses on Rue Pave and a hachnosas sefer Torah ceremony where HaRav Rottenberg announces the return of Torah to Paris, then jumps 40 years ahead in time to Yeshivas Nishmas Yisroel, filled with bochurim and the sounds of Torah study, to kollelim and Yeshivas Toras Zeev in Jerusalem.
The moving film was screened at the annual dinner for Yad Mordechai, which formed after hundreds of years of spiritual desolation without Torah and yeshivas, since the expulsion of French Jewry in 1394. Generations of golus kept Torah hidden in France until HaRav Rottenberg came along and revealed the dormant roots, bringing the light of Torah to Paris.
From a handful of baalei battim who feared the resurgence of Torah in the indifferent or hostile atmosphere then prevailing in the French capital, early this week 2,000 Jews gathered in an enormous hall filled with an atmosphere of kedushoh at the annual fundraising event for Yad Mordechai's Torah institutions, to strengthen Torah and the bnei Torah community led by HaRav Yitzchok Katz, who heads the institutions and the yeshiva.
"HaRav Rottenberg laid the foundations and brought the impossible to fruition by going against the stream," said HaRav Refoel Ben Zaken, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ateres Avrohom in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood, who was among HaRav Rottenberg's first talmidim.
Some segments of footage showed the situation before HaRav Rottenberg's arrival. Boys sat bareheaded in the talmud Torah operated by the Consistoire, and covered their heads with their hands during Bircas Hamozone.
HaRav Moshe Soloveitchik appears speaking at a cornerstone-laying ceremony for Beis Yaakov Kinyan Avrohom a few months after HaRav Rottenberg passed away in 5750 (1990). "According to the reality in Paris there was no way for a pure yeshiva or a chareidi school to be founded; it was impossible. Yet HaRav Rottenberg did found a yeshiva and a school. It was nothing short of a miracle," he said. Many more miracles were to follow.
A table was laid at the head of the huge hall for notable guests — roshei yeshivas led by HaRav Katz, the guest of honor HaRav Moshe Shapira of Jerusalem, Paris Chief Rabbi David Mashash, philanthropist R' Rafael Harari, rabbonim and maggidei shiurim.
This year's event was meant to generate support for the 20 institutions that have emerged and grown under the leadership of HaRav Katz. Today the heart of Paris beats with a yeshivoh gedoloh, Yeshivas Nishmas Yisroel; opposite it, above the beis knesses, a kollel for working men and college students; a Bais Yaakov school on Rue St. Mor near Belleville; Seminar Elisheva; a kollel in the 16th arrondissement; another kollel in Geneva and Yeshivas Toras Zeev in Jerusalem — and more. On the table were copies of chaburos on Maseches Brochos written by the kollel for working men who study early in the morning at Yeshivas Yad Mordechai.
