he date of the 90th National Convention of Agudath Israel of America had changed, said Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, the organization's executive vice president. But so, he continued, had the theme — and for the same reason.
The yearly gathering of American Jews to hear words of chochmah, chizuk and mussar from gedolei doreinu and to bask in their presence is usually at the end of November. This year, however, explained Rabbi Zwiebel, who chaired the convention's opening plenary session on Thursday night, it was a full month later. The original idea had been to reflect on the unprecedented convergence of 90,000 Jews this past summer at MetLife Stadium to celebrate the Siyum HaShas, and demographic studies that showed the growth of the Orthodox community. "Kikochvei Hashomayim Larov" was, accordingly, to be the theme.
But it was felt in November, in the wake of superstorm Sandy and with rockets raining down on Jews in Israel, that a relaxed and happy gathering of friends and neighbors like an Agudah convention was somehow not appropriate. And so the annual event was postponed and its theme was changed, with current events in mind, to: "Shomrei Acheinu Anachnu: Our responsibility to one another in times of challenge."
The two themes were in fact related, Rabbi Zwiebel said. The blessing of our community's growth and strength, and the responsibility of each of us for the other go hand-in-hand. There is much to do to meet the challenges of growth, and caring for one another is the key to doing so effectively. "We are responsible for one another," he told the large crowd, "not just in times of crisis" but even in "normal times."
The Agudah leader then touched upon some of the challenges facing the community, from the need to strengthen kiruv rechokim, to the protection our children from both physical and spiritual harm, to unemployment, to shidduchim, to domestic problems. Assessing and addressing the problems before us, he said, "is why we're here."
And with that, Rabbi Zwiebel introduced the Novominsker Rebbe and Rosh Agudas Yisroel, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, who offered the traditional "Message from the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. "We are comforted by our accomplishments," the Rebbe began, "but troubled by our failures." Elaborating, he cited the mammoth gatherings for the Siyum HaShas and the Citifield asifa, but also the concurrent desecrations of kvod Shomayim in other places and happenings. And although the outpouring of chesed in the wake of Sandy was both astounding and healing, there are still many who are suffering trauma and need. "Are we sufficiently shouldering the burdens of our fellows?" he asked.
Rabbi Perlow noted that we suffer too from how the secular world, egged on by how an often hostile media views us, and how some self-styled crusaders seize freedom of speech and modern technology to attempt to tear down worthy institutions and people. And he referenced, too, "the latest issue, the gezeira of New York City to set foot in the practice of metzitza bepeh," something, he lamented, that we never expected to see in this land of religious freedom.
Addressing the theme on a philosophical level, the Rebbe explained that the root of achieving growth in bein odom lechavero lies in honing our relationships with Hashem, for He is the source of the nefesh that is Klal Yisroel. Citing the Tanya, Rabbi Perlow pointed out that all of the nation is one; it is only our physical selves that separate us from one another. Thus, when we focus on our relationship with the Divine and place our spiritual states, not our physical ones, at the top of our priorities, we can become true achim to one another. "One common root unites us," he declared, and renders "the pain of one the pain of the other, the happiness of one the happiness of the other."
Seeking spiritual growth, he continued, entails not just observance but living like Jews, eating, conducting ourselves and doing business in a way that sets us apart as a sublime people. We have to endeavor to achieve not only "kiddush maasim" but "tziyun maasim" - not only doing the right things but doing all that we do the right way.
Concluding his address, Rabbi Perlow noted how, in the Gemara, Rabi Eliezer was asked how one can save himself from the "birthpangs" of the time preceding Moshiach's arrival. His answer was "he should immerse himself in Torah and Gemilus Chassodim." Rabbi Perlow suggested that the response implied a midoh kenegged midoh, a "measure for measure." To merit being treated with kindness during a time of upheaval, in other words, we must engage in kindness. Gemilus Chassodim is self-evidently engagement in kindness. And Torah study, Rabbi Perlow explained, is the ultimate kindness - to the world itself, which relies on Torah for its very existence.
In such challenging times, Rabbi Perlow said, "our commitment must be deep, not superficial." We must demonstrate, he asserted, what a truly Jewish life is like, "what makes us different."
Rabbi Uren Reich, Rosh Hayeshiva of Woodlake Village, then took the podium. He stressed that when disasters strike, whether it be a storm or the histalkus of Gedolim, we must not succumb to the natural human temptation to just brush off the event and move on; we must be agitated and take it deeply to heart.
Rabbi Reich then delivered a fascinating discourse on the Torah's account of Yosef and his brothers, demonstrating that throughout the narrative all of the shivtei Koh, Yosef and his brothers alike, were making cheshbonos hanefesh, focusing on what events were intended to mean to them, what was demanded of them by every single thing that happened to them.
Nothing, he emphasized, is chance. That is the attitude of Amolek and diametric to the Jewish mindset. And so, he continued, we too, when we feel that, like Yosef, who "spoke harshly" to his brothers, Hashem is dealing "harshly" with us, we should "not be fooled," but rather realize that challenges are opportunities, indeed mandates, for us to make a cheshbon hanefesh, and to grow spiritually from the experience.
As one example of where such action is required, Rabbi Reich expressed the shock all mesorah-respecting Jews must feel as a result of the largest city in a malchus shel chesed seeking to regulate bris milah. "Unbelievable," he characterized the development, and he quoted Rav Eliashiv as having once told a visitor that efforts to regulate metzitza bepeh is "not simply a war on metzitza bepeh but rather on milah itself."
"Where are we?" lamented Rabbi Reich. "Where is our outrage?"
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The next speaker, Rabbi Yaakov Bender, Rosh Hayeshiva of Darchei Torah and a resident of Far Rockaway, knew well of what he spoke when he saluted all — and there were, blessedly, many — "who stepped up to help" after the recent storm devastated that locale and many others along the coast. Rabbi Bender expressed particular gratitude to Agudath Israel, which sent Rabbi Yehiel Kalish to assist in raising funds and directing recovery efforts after the storm, and bemoaned the fact that some wax cynical about the need for an Agudah. "Agudath Israel was the address," he said, for those who found themselves suddenly in need of assistance. "The Gedolim of the past," he explained, those who established Agudas Yisroel,"knew that there needed to be an address for Jews to turn to."
Rabbi Bender spoke to the importance of true chesed, of how every Jew must be deeply empathic of his fellow Jew. He quoted Rav Yaakov Galinksi as recalling how he had the opportunity at the beginning of the Second World War to meet with Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, zt"l. Expecting that the godol would engage him in Torah study, he instead was peppered with questions about his personal welfare, culminating with an examination of his shoes, which Rav Chaim Ozer said were in need of repair, and with a demand that the then-bochur consider the godol's home his own.
The speaker then recounted other examples of such heartfelt concern, like when, in 1970, Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt"l, was released by terrorists who had hijacked the plane he was on, and a large number of talmidim of different yeshivas went to the airport in New York to greet the Rosh Hayeshiva on his return. Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt"l, was present and instructed a band that had been assembled to play joyful music when Rav Hutner would appear to not do so. Because there were still Jews being held captive by the terrorists, he explained, and while kovod haTorah mandated a gathering of hakoras hatov to greet Rav Hutner, to celebrate joyfully when other Jews were still in dire straits would constitute a lack of sharing their pain.
We too, exhorted Rabbi Bender, cannot allow ourselves joy over our blessings, or even rest, when we know that there are Jews suffering, whether because they were displaced or financially affected by a storm or whether they are children still waiting, as so many are, to be placed in yeshivos.
The evening's final speaker was a venerated elder from Eretz Yisroel: Rabbi Yitzchok Scheiner, Rosh Hayeshiva of Kaminetz in Yerushalayim.
Rabbi Scheiner began with hakoras hatov to Rabbi Bender's grandfather, Rav Avrohom Bender, for having guided him from public high school in Pittsburgh to a path that led to his becoming a rosh yeshiva.
Then, turning to the convention theme, Rabbi Scheiner observed that the word "responsible" — as in the truism that all Jews are responsible for one another — can have two meanings: being mandated to care for others in trouble, or having been the cause of another's troubles. We are facing many communal problems, the Rosh Yeshiva stated. Many of our community's children are estranged from Yiddishkeit, he said, or even on the streets, involved with drugs or worse.
The Rosh Yeshiva quoted his rebbe, Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, zt"l, as saying that essential Jewish traits and middos tovos and yir'as Shomayim cannot be taught; they must be "caught" — absorbed from a true Jewish home environment. If they are witnessed in the home, they will become part of a child. And, Rabbi Scheiner added, it isn't enough that a warm Torah atmosphere permeate the home. It must be a hot one — "just like adding warm water to a cold mikveh won't do anything, and only adding hot water will have a result." If we truly, deeply care in the home, he asserted, "our children will be affected."
Rabbi Scheiner went on to decry the "technological gadgets" and devices that have infected so many Jewish homes and pockets, calling them the "wages of the sitra achra," or forces of evil. And, returning to the theme of "responsibility," he recalled the famous statement of Rav Yisroel Salanter, zt"l, that if a Jew makes the right decision in a small Eastern European town, it can affect a non-religious Jew in Paris. What we do in our own lives can impact another Jew far away and in an entirely different environment. Such "ripple effects," the Rosh Yeshiva explained, can take place naturally, as a Jew's decisions can directly influence another Jew who witnesses them, and the second Jew in turn can act differently as a result on a trip abroad and influence yet another Jew who sees his conduct there. And there can be spiritual ripples, too, created in ways that are beyond us, whereby our actions in and of themselves can have a positive effect on other Jews.
Rabbi Scheiner concluded with a bracha to all who had converged on the hotel ballroom to participate in the opening plenary session of the convention, that they merit, through their decisions and actions, having only "ripple effects" of good, of kedusha, on all of Klal Yisroel.
The Road from Katowice to East Brunswick
There was electricity in the air on Motzei Shabbos parshas Vayechi at the East Brunswick Hilton in New Jersey. There is always an atmosphere of excitement in the moments before an Agudath Israel of America national convention plenary session. But the feeling was more intense this time, at the organization's 90th convention, which meant that it was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Agudas Yisroel movement in the Silesian town of Katowice in 1912, a truly historic milestone.
The world has changed in astounding ways since the movement was established by gedolei hador of that era, including the Chofetz Chaim, the Imrei Emes, Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky and the Czortkover Rebbe, among many others. And yet, despite all the changes, the challenges facing Torah Jewry today as compared to those that existed 100 years ago differ primarily in their detail, not in their essence.
In 1912, the problems included the alien ideologies that were polluting the clear waters of the Jewish mesorah, and the resultant loss of precious Jewish souls to the blandishments of an "enlightened" world. Those ideologies have largely been relegated to the dustbin of history but others have rushed in to take their place. And even today, with the community of Torah Jews growing year by year, there are still young people who, for an assortment of reasons, have yet to find their rightful places in the Torah-observant world.
The establishment of Agudas Yisroel 100 years ago eventually yielded resettlement efforts in the wake of each of the two World Wars and, more happily, yeshivos and girls schools that today number in the hundreds and provide Jewish education to hundreds of thousands of Jewish children and young adults. Not to mention the phenomenal growth of the Daf Yomi program: 90,000 people celebrated the Siyum HaShas at MetLife Stadium this past summer, as did many tens of thousands around the world. The Orthodox press established in the years after Katowice now thrives.
And so a centennial celebration - or, better, expression of hakoras hatov - was certainly in order. And the convention banquet Melave Malka was its setting.
Restoring Klal Yisroel's Neshamah
The banquet chairman, the venerated and beloved Reb Yechiel Benzion Fishoff, opened the evening with reminiscences of prewar Europe and the vital role that Agudas Yisroel played in strengthening Yiddishkeit and keeping foreign influences at bay. "With all of the secular philosophies — socialism, Communism, the haskalah movement, Zionism — that were taking Yidden in Europe away from frumkeit at that time," Mr. Fishoff stated, "Agudas Yisroel literally gave the neshomoh back to Klal Yisroel."
Mr. Fishoff, who was introduced by the well-known Agudath Israel askan Shlomo Werdiger, emphasized the initial role the American Agudah played in helping shearis hapleitah refugees rebuild their lives in the United States.
"The Agudah offices at 5 Beekman Street immediately became a port of refuge for the numerous Jewish survivors of World War II," Mr. Fishoff emphasized, "who flocked to the United States seeking spiritual revival."
Demonstrating the amazing expansion of Agudath Israel over the decades, Mr. Fishoff pointed out that the organization grew from just one office in New York to an active national movement with offices in 26 states. "Agudath Israel can be compared to Avrohom Ovinu," he said, "about whom the posuk says 'bah bayamim' — he came with his days, which means he gained new strength and vigor in his advanced age."
Nobody Knows, But Hashem Knows
The evening's first major address was delivered by Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Levin, Rosh Hayeshiva of Telshe Chicago and member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, who likewise recounted his personal experiences as a young person with Agudath Israel. The Rosh Hayeshiva spoke passionately about how his mentor — Rav Elya Meir Bloch zt"l, the Telsher Rosh Hayeshiva — "drafted" him to run a new Zeirei Agudath Israel group when Rabbi Levin was a yeshiva bochur in Cleveland. "Rav Bloch instructed me to keep on working for Agudath Israel until he would tell me to stop," Rabbi Levin revealed. "He never told me to stop, so I'm still doing that holy work."
Recalling how Reb Elimelech Gavriel (Mike) Tress would regularly interact with Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, the Menahel of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, on behalf of other Yidden, Rabbi Levin quoted the late Agudah leader's widow as commenting that nobody truly knows the great deeds Mike Tress did for so many individual Jews. "But Hashem knows," the Telshe Rosh Yeshiva thundered. "He records all the wonderful actions — of Mike Tress, and of such great Agudath Israel leaders as Rav Itche Meir Levin, Morenu Rav Yaakov Rosenheim, and Rabbi Moshe Sherer — who took a relatively small group and transformed it into the most effective Orthodox organization in the world." Mentioning two hard-working Agudah leaders who were recently niftar — Rabbis Chaskel Besser and Boruch Borchardt — Rabbi Levin called on a new generation to carry on the great legacy of these historic figures.
The Challenge in the Pocket
The next address was delivered by another member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, Chacham Yosef Harari Raful, Rosh Hayeshiva of Ateret Torah. Rabbi Raful also focused on youth, on the need to ensure that the generations to come remain securely in the fold of the community. He decried the terrible challenge to spirituality that today "lies in the pocket" and exhorted his listeners to apply themselves as "soldiers, following Gedolim," as they head into the future.
Focusing on Agudath Israel's efforts over the decades in the Holy Land, Rabbi Raful said, "It historically fought to uphold chinuch, Shabbat, kashrut. What would we have today in Eretz Yisroel without Agudath Yisroel?" The Rosh Hayeshiva exhorted his listeners, "Everybody should think carefully about the problems we currently face, and ask themselves, 'What can I do to help?'"
A special guest from Eretz Yisroel — Rabbi Doniel Alter, Rosh Kollel, Kollel Ari Shebechaburah, Yerushalayim, and son of the late Gerrer Rebbe the Pnei Menachem — then ascended the podium. He began beginning by delivering a "birchas tzaddik" to the convention from the Gerrer Rebbe shlita. He recounted how earlier Gerrer Rebbes valued Agudath Israel and played such a central role in building the movement.
Rabbi Alter then quoted the posuk from Parshas Vayechi wherein Yaakov Ovinu told his sons to gather around him so that he could reveal to them the future end of golus. Playing on the words of the posuk, Rav Alter said, "If you gather together (for Torah purposes), it will bring closer the ketz ("end" of the exile); the kuf of the word ketz, which equals 100, represents Agudath Israel's 100 years since its founding in Katowice, and the tzaddik of ketz equals 90, which represents Agudath Israel's 90 years in the United States."
The Message of the Gedolei Yisroel
After a break for service of the main course of the Melave Malka, Convention Chairman Rabbi Menachem Lubinsky informed the audience — which, in addition to those in the ballroom, included audiences in over 20 cities watching via satellite video in locations across North America — that many leading Torah sages considered Agudath Israel to be of utmost importance to the spiritual well-being of Klal Yisroel. "The Chofetz Chaim constantly exhorted people to join the organization," he said. "The Imrei Emes specially traveled to help establish it, Rav Aharon Kotler immediately began to build it anew after the Holocaust, and Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz stated that it is halachically prohibited to be against this holy organization.
"Agudath Israel," Rabbi Lubinsky dramatically concluded, "now more than ever!"
The next 20 minutes featured the premier showing of a video produced specially for the occasion by film maker Aryeh Gelbard, entitled "The Heritage of Kattowice." The video combined archival footage, rare documents and photos, to trace the arc of Agudath Israel's history and outline its myriad accomplishments. Images of Mr. Mike Tress and Rabbi Moshe Sherer flashed on the large screens, accompanied by the dramatic sounds of their voices rallying Jews from all over to display their fidelity to gedolei Yisroel and the organization that carries out the sages' dictates.
Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, Rosh Hayeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha (Lakewood) and a member the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, noted the significance of the year being not only the 100th since Agudas Yisroel's founding but the fiftieth yahrtzeit year of "der zaide," Rav Aharon Kotler, zt"l, who was the major force in the establishment of an unyielding and principled Torah community in postwar America.
Commenting that the hashkofos of the average Jew are naturally not as refined as those of the gedolim, the Rosh Hayeshiva said, "At times we may have such thoughts as, 'perhaps we do not need so many full-time lomdei Torah' — but our gedolim have their own awareness that supersedes ours." Rabbi Kotler followed up his point by recounting how his zaide, Rav Aharon spoke daily with Rabbi Sherer for 11 years to counsel him on directing the organization effectively and appropriately.
"Agudath Israel of America is still following in Rabbi Sherer's footsteps," the Lakewood Rosh Hayeshiva insisted. "Every move its leaders make is discussed beforehand with the gedolei Torah."
Protecting Jewish Rights
Nathan Lewin, Esq., a renowned attorney who has been the key figure in recurring legal rights and protection for Torah Jewry in the United States, spoke of his "zechus avos" as a grandson of the Reisher Rov, Rav Aharon Levin, a major force in the formative years of Agudas Yisroel; and also a son of Dr. Issac Lewin, who served as Morenu Rav Yaakov Rosenheim's right hand man and Agudas Yisroel World Organization's representative to the United Nations.
The distinguished attorney traced his own battles to protect the rights of Sabbath observers in the work place to the efforts of his zaide, the Reisher Rov, who called for European governments to recognize and protect the needs of Shomrei Shabbos, and corresponded with the Chofetz Chaim on that issue.
Declaring "You have to continue to fight for religious Jewish rights," Mr. Lewin concluded by reminding his listeners about the tragic Rubashkin case. In a clever play on words, the attorney invoked the zochor veshamor regarding Shabbos in the Aseres HaDibros, and exhorted the audience, "Zochor, remember, ShaMoR, Shin Mem Resh — Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin."
Sealed with the Truth
The final speaker of the evening was Rabbi Aharon Dovid Dunner, Dayan of Hisachdus HaKehillos in London who, despite the late hour delivered the wondrous blend of humor and spiritual depth for which he is rightly renowned. He recalled his own personal experiences in the early 1950's as a boy at an Agudas Yisroel summer camp in England, and how his parents and in-laws had been involved in the work of Agudas Yisroel both before the second World War and subsequently.
Dayan Dunner addressed the vital importance of emes as a high ideal, gilding that theme with illustrative and instructive accounts of gedolim of previous generations. He pointed to leading rabbinical figures in the Agudah movement, including the Chofetz Chaim and the Imrei Emes, who based their entire lives on speaking and behaving in accordance with absolute truth. "Agudas Yisroel was founded on the truth — on emes," he intoned. In keeping with that concept, Rabbi Dunner concluded the evening by urging Torah-loyal Jews to maintain their religious integrity at all times as a means of ensuring that governments respect our beliefs and our heartfelt desire to maintain total mitzvah observance.
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After bentching, as the large crowd moved into the corridor outside the ballroom, surely more than a few people were struck by the contrast between the venue of a meeting a century ago in a small Silesian town and the opulence of a hotel that was chosen because of its large capacity. And they must also have been struck by the fact that, while the superficialities of then and now may be radically different, both eras' essence — the commitment to addressing all of Klal Yisroel's challenges through the Torah and the guidance of Torah leaders — remains precisely the same.
Boruch Shubert contributed to this report.
