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| Then and Now: Frimet Goldberger used to wear and wig and a hat over her shaved head (left). Today she grows her hair long.
by Frimet Goldberger
I remember the first time I felt the cold, prickly air on my newly shaved head. I remember looking in the mirror. I remember staring at the pile of auburn hair in the vanity sink of the cozy basement apartment I now shared with my husband of less than a day. I remember my mother gathering the hair into a garbage bag and disposing of it, unaffectedly. I remember placing the new wig on my bare head and fussing over the few stray hairs the shaytl makher, or wig stylist, forgot to spray into place.
The morning after my wedding, three months after my 18th birthday, my mother shaved my head, and I felt absolutely nothing. Was I supposed to feel sad at this loss? Was I supposed to feel violated? I did not. Married women shave their heads because Hashem and the rebbe command them to do so. According to the Talmud, a woman’s uncovered hair is equivalent to physical nudity. Hasidic rabbis have taken this a step further, requiring women to shave their heads to ensure that not a single hair is seen. For Satmar women like me, it is a grave sin not to shave. You would not be buried in the Satmar beys-hakhayim, and if that weren’t serious enough, you would also put your children, live and unborn, at imminent risk of terrible diseases.
The Satmar Rebbe, Yoel Teitelbaum, famously gave emotional, tear-jerking speeches against married women growing their own hair. “Jewish daughters, our mothers and fathers gave up their lives to our Father in Heaven for the sanctity of His name, but you, their daughters, don’t want to give up even a few hairs?” he asked in a speech on Yom Kippur eve in 1951, according to “The Rebbe,” a 2010 biography by Dovid Meisels. “What does Hashem Yisbarach (God) ask of us? A few hairs! Because of a few hairs you are making yourselves lose both worlds. Jewish daughters, shave your hair and give honor to the Torah.”
The last time I buzzed off my hair — exactly five years ago — was nothing like that first time. The anniversary marks a pivotal juncture in my life, a point of momentous change that led me on a path to a new life. The day before that final shave, on an unusually warm October night, my husband and I sat at an oblong wooden table in a side room of the main Satmar synagogue, in the upstate New York village of Kiryas Joel. At the table were eight middle-aged men in black hats and suits; they sported long gray-and-white beards. I sat with my trembling hands folded on my lap and adjusted my long black skirt — part of the uber-modest ensemble I had carefully chosen hours before — for the umpteenth time, and awaited the storm.
I knew we were in trouble the moment I saw the letter on the official United Talmudical Academy stationary in the mail. The letter was curt and stated unequivocally that because of my failure to dress in accordance with the stringent tznius, modesty, rules of the holy shtetl, our 3-year-old son could no longer attend school. After the shock wore off, my husband and I scrambled to arrange a meeting with the Va’ad Hatznius — the mysterious group charged with maintaining the highest standards of modesty, especially for women. The group was known to resort to extreme measures, such as slashing car tires, when warnings and threats did not work to restore modesty.
As I sat at the table with the Va’ad Hatznius, the head of the group told my husband and me that it could no longer tolerate my modern clothing. This is a holy shtetl, and the rebbe would be horrified if he were still alive, he said in Yiddish, while swaying side to side in his folding chair. Another man chimed in to say he also heard that I have bei-hur, a derisive term used to describe hair on a married woman. They couldn’t confirm it, he said, but oy vey to my family and me. What a disgrace.
I looked down at my dark shoes and thick beige stockings. How did the Va’ad Hatznius find out? It must have been the neighbors who saw a stray hair, who noticed that I wore the same turban all the time. It was the only turban I could find that would fit on top of the large, white knit kippah I bought in the hosiery shop, the type that Hasidic men wear to sleep at night, which held my mass of hair securely in place. I would spend many hours a day with these neighbor women while my children were playing outside. They must have ratted me out. Or, perhaps, the mikveh attendant reported me because I had been absent for more than a year. Since my hair had started to grow out, I had stopped making the monthly trip to the strict Kiryas Joel mikveh to do the ritual bathing after menstruation, as required by Jewish law. Instead, I went to a mikveh in Rockland County, N.Y., where women with hair are allowed to bathe. I knew that the Va’ad Hatznius was going to catch on to my secret at some point, and now it had.
The group would send a woman to my house to check my head, the older man across from me said — all while keeping his right hand over his eyes to shield me from view. He spoke to my husband, never directly to me.
We left the synagogue, pale and worn down. My husband had tried desperately to counter their allegations, to keep our last strings to our community intact, to get our son back into the only yeshiva he could attend. There was no debating that we would have to prove our commitment to the group. We reasoned that if we rewound the clock, if I returned to the person I was — a model of Hasidic modesty — perhaps the group would let us stay in the place we were born and bred. I needed to lengthen my skirt, buy bigger shirts, cover my wig with a wider headband and, of course, shave my head.
I arrived back home, removed the dusty shaver from the linen closet and stared at my reflection in the mirror. It felt wrong, oh so very wrong, to shave. I felt violated and intimidated. But the thought of being revealed was worse. A woman would ring my doorbell tomorrow, ask me to remove my turban, and see all of my hair. Oh, the humiliation, the shame. My mother, my friends and the community would discover my secret. My son would lose his spot in school. I had no choice.
The decision to stop shaving was not a conscious one. When I became pregnant with my second child, I stopped visiting the mikveh. Once I was out of view of the mikveh attendant, there was no one to scrutinize my head. I simply let my hair grow out, anticipating the inevitable shave after my daughter’s birth. At this point in our marriage, my husband and I had forged friendships outside the little enclave of Kiryas Joel and discovered the vast population of pious Orthodox, and even Hasidic, Jews who didn’t shave their heads. The movies we covertly watched at home with the shades drawn, the illicit vacations we took — they all influenced my decision to forgo shaving. I still felt immense guilt at the thought of condemning my family to hell, and the feeling followed me like a haunting shadow.
But then my beautiful daughter arrived one cold January evening. I continued to let my hair grow. I felt like a woman again, even if my hair went uncovered for only a few hours a day, in the safe confines of my own home. It felt too good to let it go.
Standing in front of the mirror after my meeting with the Va’ad Hatznius, I knew I had skirted the inevitable for too long. Within three minutes, my long auburn hair lay in a sad heap in the same sink as it had five years earlier. I cried onto my clipped hair, hot tears of frustration, anger and humiliation.
That night, my husband and I could barely sleep. The next morning, we decided to leave the community for good. We no longer felt capable of maintaining an extreme Hasidic lifestyle. We ached for a little freedom, for the leash around our necks to be loosened, for my hair to be left in its rightful place, to grow or show as I pleased.
It has been five years. Many lifestyle changes and adjustments later, I no longer cover my hair as many of my Orthodox peers do, and I am no longer capable of accepting, let alone understanding, the practice of forced head shaving, much less the threats and intimidation used to maintain it within the community. But I am grateful for the fact that this very last, most personal violation of mine led my husband and me to gather the strength to take control of our lives and to make decisions for ourselves, our children and for me — my own body.
Frimet Goldberger is a radio producer, documentarian, writer and full-time mother of two children. She is set to receive her Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College in December.
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Thursday, November 7, 2013
Frimet Goldberger, Satmar wife will no longer shave her head!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
Chassidishe Meshigner who converted to Islam charged with threatening Jews
A New Jersey man who co-founded a radical Islamic website has pleaded guilty to using the Internet to make threats against Jewish groups.
Yousef Mohamid al-Khattab, 45, of Atlantic City started the now-defunct Revolution Muslim website in 2007 with partner Jesse Curtis Morton.
Al-Khattab, who converted from Judaism and was previously known as Joseph Cohen, is the third person connected with Revolution Muslim to be convicted in federal court in Alexandria.
Morton and another man, Zachary Chesser, admitted using the site to deliver thinly veiled threats against the creators of the "South Park" television show for perceived insults to the prophet Muhammad.
Morton and another man, Zachary Chesser, admitted using the site to deliver thinly veiled threats against the creators of the "South Park" television show for perceived insults to the prophet Muhammad.
Al-Khattab's guilty plea, announced today, does not mention the "South Park" threats. In court documents, al-Khattab admits encouraging readers to take unspecified action against Jewish leaders.
In some postings, he provided names and addresses of Jewish leaders and synagogues and urged Muslims angered by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to "deal with them directly at their homes."
In another posting he praised Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan for "13 knockouts," a reference to the 13 people Hasan shot and killed in the 2009 attacks.
Al-Khattab faces up to five years in prison at a sentencing scheduled for Feb. 7. His lawyer, Alan Yamamoto, said it is not yet clear what length of term will be recommended under the federal sentencing guidelines.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Machlokas between Litvishe "Gedolei Yisroel" intensifies; Students and kollel guys thrown out of yeshivas that supported Rav Auerbach shlita
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Mendel Tewel arrested for sexual abuse, Video
- Married rabbi, 30, arrested at Jewish youth centre in Beverly Hills for 'sexually molesting boys' in New York.
- Menachem Tewel, 30, also known as Mendel Tevel, was arrested at the JEM Community Center on S. Santa Monica Boulevard, in Los Angeles, California He is suspected of abusing four boys between 1995 and 2004 The incidents happened in Brooklyn where he lived and at a sleep-away camp in Pennsylvania.
- One alleged victim says Tevel performed oral sex on him several times in his car when he was 14 Another claims Tevel spanked his naked body with a ping-pong bat multiple times.
- Tevel is married to Bracha, the daughter of JEM's director, Rabbi Hertzel Illulian Tevel is facing extradition to New York.
A rabbi accused of sexually abusing boys in New York was arrested Tuesday afternoon at a Jewish community center in Beverly Hills, California.
Menachem Tewel, 30, also known as Mendel Tevel, was handcuffed and led away from the JEM Community Center at 9930 S. Santa Monica Boulevard, at around 1.30pm, where he was working a youth worker. He is suspected of abusing four boys between 1995 and 2004 on two counts of criminal sexual acts and one count of sexual abuse.
Tevel is accused of carrying out two of the acts in Brooklyn and two at Machane Menachem, a since-closed Chabad-Lubavitch sleepaway camp in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, where Tevel worked in 2001.
He also worked as a mentor at the now-closed Shterns Yeshiva in upstate New York, according to the Jewish Journal. All of the boys are now adults, including one who says Tevel performed oral sex on him several times in his car when Tevel was 22 and the alleged victim was 14, according to the New York Post.
The rabbi moved to Los Angeles and had recently been working at the JEM Center, a Jewish youth community center in Beverly Hills.
The JEM Center’s director, Rabbi Hertzel Illulian, is Tevel’s father-in-law. Illulian’s daughter, Bracha, married Tevel in 2012, according to the Jo ‘No child, no parent, no one has alleged anything against the JEM Center,’
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| JEM Community Center in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, where he was working as a youth worker |
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| Wife: Tevel is married to Bracha, pictured, the daughter of his boss at JEM, Rabbi Hertzel Illulian, director of the centre Jewish Community Watch, an organization that focuses on child abuse prevention, said it alerted local rabbis about the allegations against Tevel in August. |
The Journal had reported that four men said they had been victims of Tevel when they were minors, ranging from ages 6 to 14 at the time of the alleged abuse. They claimed Tevel performed acts that included spanking on bare skin, to sexually suggestive rubbing.
One alleged victim, now 25, told the Journal that Tevel’s abuse might have begun at a very early age. The 25-year-old, who did not wish to be named, said when he was 6 or 7 years old, his family lived near Tevel’s family in Brooklyn. He said Tevel, then 11 or 12 years old, would go to the basement of his home multiple times per week with him, lock the door, tie him down, remove some or all of his clothing, and whip him. ‘I had just a T-shirt on and socks,’ he told the Journal. ‘Of course, pants and any sort of underwear, that was gone.’
The alleged victim, who was raised an observant Jew, said he has since attended therapy for years after that.
Another man, 21, said he was about 9 years old and Tevel was about 18, when he was a first-time camper at Machane Menachem. One day, he alleged, Tevel brought him into a sports equipment room. As another person watched the door, the 21-year-old man claimed, Tevel bent him over his lap and smacked him on the rear with a pingpong paddle. He then pulled down his bathing suit and continued smacking him. Tevel will be extradited to New York, according to police.
Frummies in Israel upset that new law will prohibit marriage for under 18 year olds
Israel will now be like most of the Western world in which the legal marital age for boys and girls will be 18-years-old.
After a long battle, the Knesset committee approved legislation that increase the legal marriage age from 17 to 18-years-old. Hundreds of underage marriages are reportedly taking place in Israel each year, mostly involving young women.
The Knesset's Constitution, and Law and Justice committees approved the bill to raise the age of marriage. This bill, which was proposed by Meretz Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On, Yariv Levin of Likud and other Knesset members, was first proposed in 2004.
The bill has been stalled in the Knesset mainly due to opposition from ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups. The new law sets the minimum marriage age to 18, but allows the courts to approve younger people to get married in special circumstances, such as being beneficial to the children.
However, the court will have to hear from the youngsters themselves, and under no circumstances can they approve marriages for those under 16-years-old.
“Rabbinical courts should be authorized to approve younger people to get married and not just the civil courts," deputy Uri Maklev of the United Torah Judaism party said. “Some families traditionally marry young. It will be a mistake not to allow them to do so.This is a violation of their civil rights," Maklev added.
"Today the Knesset has sent an important public message that it seeks to safeguard the rights of minors, and not just abandon them to their fates,” Zehava Gal-On said.
"The main victims of these marriages are girls," Gal -On also said. “Some parents marry them by force or under great pressure in the view that a woman's place is in the home and that her be-all and end-all is to raising children. We want girls and women to marry willingly, and with the full understanding of the repercussions of getting married and raising a family," she added.
After a long battle, the Knesset committee approved legislation that increase the legal marriage age from 17 to 18-years-old. Hundreds of underage marriages are reportedly taking place in Israel each year, mostly involving young women.
The Knesset's Constitution, and Law and Justice committees approved the bill to raise the age of marriage. This bill, which was proposed by Meretz Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On, Yariv Levin of Likud and other Knesset members, was first proposed in 2004.
The bill has been stalled in the Knesset mainly due to opposition from ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups. The new law sets the minimum marriage age to 18, but allows the courts to approve younger people to get married in special circumstances, such as being beneficial to the children.
However, the court will have to hear from the youngsters themselves, and under no circumstances can they approve marriages for those under 16-years-old.
“Rabbinical courts should be authorized to approve younger people to get married and not just the civil courts," deputy Uri Maklev of the United Torah Judaism party said. “Some families traditionally marry young. It will be a mistake not to allow them to do so.This is a violation of their civil rights," Maklev added.
"Today the Knesset has sent an important public message that it seeks to safeguard the rights of minors, and not just abandon them to their fates,” Zehava Gal-On said.
"The main victims of these marriages are girls," Gal -On also said. “Some parents marry them by force or under great pressure in the view that a woman's place is in the home and that her be-all and end-all is to raising children. We want girls and women to marry willingly, and with the full understanding of the repercussions of getting married and raising a family," she added.
Polish Catholics murdered 1,600 jews in 1941 in the city of Jedwabne, says new film "Aftermath"
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| Maciej Stuhr stars in the film |
The mob, led by the mayor, were Catholics; their 1,600 victims were Jewish, slaughtered over several nightmarish hours with bats, knives, rifles and other improvised weapons. Those who survived the massacre were then rounded up in a barn donated by a local farmer, which was then set ablaze. A plaque erected at the site blamed Nazis for the massacre, but, in fact, Nazis had only authorized it. Locals walked by the plaque for half a century, knowing the truth, but saying nothing.
Jedwabne's terrible secrets were at last laid bare in Neighbors, an explosive account of the massacre by Princeton University historian Jan T. Gross. That 2001 book shattered carefully held myths, promulgated by Communist leaders, that Poles were only victims of World War II, not perpetrators. (Poles -- who unlike many European countries never officially collaborated with the Nazis -- lost close to 6 million citizens to the Nazis, or about 17 percent of the population. Just over half of those were Jewish.)
Now, 12 years later, comes Aftermath -- premiering stateside Nov. 1.
It's a film inspired by Jedwabne that has forced the country to once again face certain unthinkable aspects of its past. Since its October 2012 premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival, the movie has been a lightning rod. Major news outlets have dismissed it as anti-Polish propaganda, its non-Jewish star Maciej Stuhr has been the target of vicious anti-Semitic attacks, and its producer says he has been blacklisted by the country's national film council.
That producer, Dariusz Jablonski, was first approached with the script in 2004 by Wladyslaw Pasikowski, an established director of action movies. Pasikowski's script takes place entirely in present-day Poland, and follows two brothers as they uncover what befell the Jews living in their small town, where anti-Jewish attitudes persist. Pasikowski, who is not Jewish, wrote the script after reading Neighbors, which left him feeling helpless, angry and like an unwitting accomplice to an institutionalized cover-up.
"But a book is nothing compared to the power of a feature film," says Jablonski, who was instantly gripped by the power and efficiency of Pasikowski's storytelling. His first step was to bring the project to the Polish Film Institute, an office founded in 2005 and dedicated to nurturing films that celebrate Polish culture.
The fund found the taboo project "anti-Polish," Jablonski says, not because the claims made in it were deemed untrue, but because it chose to overlook acts of Polish heroism and compassion shown toward Jews during the war.
In other words, Aftermath was not a Polish Schindler's List. Jablonski adds that PFI also objected to the image of the present-day village, inhabited by anti-Jewish thugs and locals who conspired to keep the truth literally buried. "They said this wasn't the truth about Poland, but unfortunately, I didn't agree," Jablonski says. "I know these kind of villages; I know these kind of people."
(Jerzy Bart, the institute's deputy director for economic, organizational and legal issues, remembers it differently. Bart says PFI found the topic of the film "very important," and points to Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida, which this year has won awards at film festivals in Toronto, Warsaw and London, as another example of a difficult film about Poland during the Holocaust that was funded by the institute.)
Undaunted, the team spent the next seven years getting the script in the hands of anyone -- politicians, actors, producers, investors -- who might help them get it made.
While opposition among nationalists mounted, the project found vocal support, too, most visibly within the centrist press. The groundswell eventually led the Polish Film Institute to reverse its decision. Jablonski then scoured Europe, securing backers in Russia, Slovakia and the Netherlands, each of whom contributed 10 percent of production costs. With the full budget finally in place, the call went out to an A-list production team of Polish nationals who had expressed interest over the years -- including production designer Allan Starski, an Oscar winner for Schindler's List, and cinematographer Pawel Edelman, who shot The Ghostwriter and The Pianist for Roman Polanski.
Stuhr, the son of famed Polish actor Jerzy Stuhr, was best-known for his comedic work prior to Aftermath. He'd been a fan of the project since first reading the script in 2004, and when filming began seven years later, he was the perfect age to play younger brother Jozef, who sets the plot in motion by retrieving Jewish gravestones used by villagers as paving stones and erecting a makeshift cemetery on his father's land.
While he never seriously feared for his safety, Stuhr says the nationwide controversy that swirled around the film's premiere was a trying time for him.
"They were calling for me to get a one-way ticket out of Poland immediately," Stuhr recalls. "The right-wing journalists were ruthless about me."
Jablonski read the climate as far more threatening: "I realized then that he was in physical danger. So many web pages with our pictures, saying, 'These people need to be hanged.' " He says he was particularly disturbed by an issue of Wprost, a mainstream news magazine, which provocatively splayed Stuhr's photo on its cover along with anti-Semitic graffiti and the headline, "Lynched at his own request."
Inside, an editorial entitled, "Stuhr, You Jew!" detailed the wave of racist backlash that the actor had faced. While it didn't endorse the anti-Semitic sentiments, the piece ultimately sided against the star: "He has become a symbol of simplicity and manipulating history for commercial gain," wrote its author, Magdalena Rigamonti.
"What was written inside the magazine was worse [than the cover], a load of lies," Stuhr says. "The reviewer wrote that it was the end of my career." Stuhr, whose work in Aftermath earned him the Polish Film Award for best actor, says Rigamonti's prediction hasn't yet come to pass: "I'm still very busy with work. The Polish film community has given me a lot of support, and I think I've scored plenty of points here."
Jablonski, on the other hand, says he still feels the effects of the backlash, particularly from the Polish Film Institute, which he says is seeking a full repayment of their funds.
PFI counters that Jablonski violated the terms of their agreement by attaching foreign producers without their approval, and has prohibited him from applying for further funding for the next three years. Both parties are in the process of settling their differences in court.
"The producer...broke the terms of the agreement for co-financing the production of the film...and has failed to account for the public funds received from the Polish Film Institute," Bart says. "This left the Polish Film Institute no choice but to withdraw from the agreement with Apple Film Production Ltd. and to submit the case to court."
Presented by Menemsha Films, Aftermath premieres in New York on Nov. 1, and in Los Angeles on Nov. 15.
Rav Shmuel Auerbach urges students to defy Rav Kanievsky and remain learning in Yeshivos
For those who find it difficult to believe that in Bnei Brak there is an effort to compel followers of HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Auerbach Shlita to pledge allegiance to gedolim shlita in the Torah city, they can simply read the words of Rav Auerbach in his response to his talmidim.
On page 3 of the Tuesday 25 Cheshvan 5774 edition of HaPeles, affiliated with the Bnei Torah party, Rav Auerbach sends a clear message to “bnei yeshivos and avreichim in kollel”.
“Continue your daily seder limud and feeling of spiritual elevation without compromising in the slightest on your principles and your right to remain loyal to our passionate derech.” These are the words heard from the gadol hador when avreichim visited him in his home on Monday, seeking advice as how to respond to current events.
The rosh yeshiva instructs talmidim to cling to their limudim and not permit any interruption in their daily seder. HaPeles reports the avreichim who met with the rav expressed their pain over ongoing efforts to create machlokes and divide and while they expected things to return to their norm following the elections, it does not appear this is taking place.
The rav stated that without a doubt it remains crucial to enhance the shalom between bnei torah and all who view themselves as Yirei Hashem, and above all, “one must continue with one’s limudim and distance oneself from distractions of any nature”.
The avreichim however were seeking instruction and asked how to react to efforts to use force against them in the beis medrash if and when they refuse to leave. “The lomdim will be immersed in their limudim as always and those who disturb them will shoulder the responsibility” Rav Auerbach is quoted as saying. “We are not changing in the slightest and we are not abandoning the benches of the beis medrash. We must hope this is all a rumor and false fears, and just like no one ever tried to oust lomdim from their place of limud, or demand that they act contrary to their believes and principles, we hope this will be the case here too.”
When asked about the reports that avreichim will be compelled to sign a declaration asking mechila and affirm their loyalty, Rav Auerbach reportedly stated “no one has such a right. No mosdos chinuch may make such a demand from anyone. Bnei Torah cannot be compelled to live contrary to their beliefs, following the path of our rabbonim passionately and no one should sign such a document. One must always act with Kovod Hatorah towards gedolei yisrael and there is no contradiction between the two.”
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Gerer Rebbi bans yeshiva students from eating soy based products because it can lead to gay sex??
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| Gerer Rebbi |
Officials at the yeshiva and the boys school ordered students to stay away from any food containing soy because even eating a soy based product just once a week can cause unwanted arousal.
Officials at the school believe that soy based products contain harmful hormones that damage the spirituality of students by accelerating sexual maturity.
Doctors however said that there is no evidence that soy based products accelerate puberty or accelerate hyper sexual activity in young adults.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Rav Chaim Kanievsky calls on Kollim & Yeshivas to throw out those who voted for the Bnei Torah Party! Gedoilei Yisroel of today!
Monsey residents asked to sign petition to keep Convicted child rapist Moshe Turner in Jail!
Please SIGN PETITION
To give Moishe Turner the Mass Molester
The Maximum jail time allowed by law
Thousands Turn Out To Honor Reichmann As A Giant In Business And A Paragon Of Religious Observance
Over 1000 people came to pay their respects on Motzei Shabbos to Paul Reichmann, a man whose visions of greatness were evident not only in the field of real estate, but in the realm of yiddishkeit as well. Reichmann, known to many as Moshe, passed away Friday afternoon in Toronto, just weeks after his 83rd birthday.
Reichmann’s death garnered massive media attention, with full page articles on his life in the Canadian newspapers as well as write ups in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg.com, The Boston Globe and The Financial Post.
The levaya was held at the Bais Yaakov elementary school in Toronto, with several nearby streets closed off to accommodate the overflow crowd. In true Reichmann style, there was no media coverage of the event and in the words of one funeral goer, “it was understood that no one would bring a camera. That was standard for the Reichmanns.”
Among the maspidim were R’ Shlomo Miller, Rosh Kollel of the Toronto Kollel, which was founded by Reichmann, R’ Nachman Adler, Rov of Imrei Noam, R’ Yaakov Hirschman, rosh kollel of the Toronto Kollel, R’ Mendel Brodsky, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedola Zichron Shmayahu and Reichmann’s sons and sons in law R’ Yisroel Yoel Muller, R’ Shmuli Hauer, R’ Henoch Brachfeld, who flew in for the levaya while in the middle of Sheva Brachos for his own son, Berry Reichmann and Chesky Reichmann.
The Funeral procession for Toronto real estate mogul Paul Reichmann arrives at the Bais Yaakov Girls School in Toronto on Saturday October 26, 2013.(Photo by Aaron Vincent Elkaim/VINnews.com)
Both R’ Hirschman and R’ Brodsky excused themselves for speaking in English, noting that while Reichmann would have preferred their words be delivered in Yiddish, they wanted those assembled to understand the divrei hesped.
R’ Hirschman related that for Reichmann, it wasn’t how much money he gave, it was how he gave it, always trying to minimize any discomfort an individual might feel in taking tzedaka.
One particular motzei Shabbos R’ Hirschman recalled walking into the Reichmann house and encountering not one, but two people who left the house within moments of each other, each carrying a check for $250,000.
According to R’ Hirschman, Reichmann had at one point taken a chavrusa and started learning in kollel, an effort that quickly fizzled. Asked why he stopped coming to kollel Reichmann replied that while he was in yeshiva learning, there were people coming to his house seeking donations and it was unacceptable to him that he wasn’t home to give tzedaka when people clearly needed his help.
Berry Reichmann spoke about how despite his father’s tremendous financial success, he was a real father to his children, who was always there for them and recalled Shabbos meals that were laden with zemiros, divrei Torah and no talk of business at all.
AP FILE - Then Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, left, and Paul Reichmann, who died Friday, look at a model of the proposed Canary Wharf in London.
Berry Reichmann also told of how after the collapse of Olympia & York, he had a meeting with his father where they went through a list of some 40 yeshivos that had to be cut from the Reichmanns’ financial rolls but when it came to yeshivos in Toronto, the elder Reichmann refused to eliminate a single one from the list of institutions that he supported. Asking his father why these yeshivos were being kept on, despite the staggering losses, Berry Reichmann was told, “if you lose your money and you have kids, do you cut them off?”
The only one of the Reichmann children who was still living at home when the Reichmann’s financial empire crumpled in 1992, Chesky Reichmann, related his memories of his father’s reactions that first Motzei Shabbos, when despite the financial losses, people still lined up in the hopes of receiving some kind of assistance. The elder Reichmann explained to his callers that due to serious financial setbacks, the check would be smaller than usual and when the evening was over, Chesky Reichmann noted that his father was smiling broadly. Reichmann told his son that he was grateful to have had the opportunity to accept callers into the house, even if it meant distributing lesser amounts than usual.
Reichmann is survived by his wife Lea and five children Chaya, Libby, Goldie, Berry and Chesky and numerous grandchildren. Burial will take place on Har Hamenuchos.
Oct. 27, 2013, Posters in Israel announcing the passing of Mosihe Reichman
The fifth of the six Reichmann children, Reichmann gained a reputation as the most gifted and dominant member in a family full of talent and ambition. Together with his brothers, Reichmann was also responsible for investing billions of dollars of the family fortune, not in properties that would turn a financial profit, but in something with a much greater return: yeshivos and charitable institutions around the world. The phrase “their word is their bond” became synonymous with the Reichmann name in the business world, giving the brothers, including Paul Reichmann, the opportunity to make a kiddush Hashem on a global level.
“R’ Moshe Reichmann was that rarest of tzaddikim, setting a princely example for all of Klal Yisroel,” Rav Aron Kotler, CEO of Lakewood’s Bais Medrash Govoha, told VIN News. “On the occasions when I was fortunate to meet him, he would invariably be sitting in a study overflowing with Seforim, at a table piled with Gemaros and Shulchan Aruch, with his mind immersed in Torah. He set the highest standards in business and in defining Kavod Hatorah for our entire generation.”
As described in Anthony Bianco’s 1996 biography, “The Reichmanns”, it was the Reichmann family’s staunch adherence to their yiddishkeit as well as the modest way that they conducted themselves, despite their wealth, that made a strong impression on others.
“The Reichmanns were held in the greatest respect in the Jewish community from A to Z,” Rabbi Gunther Plaut, of Canada’s largest Reform congregation, Holy Blossom Temple. “People were impressed that they were strict about their observance and public about their observance yet so private in the way they led their lives.”
Paul Reichmann and his siblings were all raised in an environment that included both strict religious observance and wealth. Reichmann’s father, Samuel, was a successful businessman, and his mother Renee was renowned for both her intellect and her incredible passion for helping others, most notably for her wartime efforts to aid Jews during World War II.
AP FILE - Then Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, left, and Paul Reichmann at the job site in 1989 of Olympia & York's vast Canary Wharf project in London.
Reichmann’s education began at the Malzgasse Talmud Torah in Vienna, and when the family moved to Tangier to escape the Nazi regime, Reichmann and his brothers were enrolled in the local Alliance Israelite yeshiva. Unhappy with the education provided there, Reichmann’s mother transferred her payos-wearing sons to the French run Lycee Regnault, a secular school attended by the children of many diplomats. The Reichmann boys were forced to remove their yarmulkas in school but were exempted from attending classes on Shabbos.
Unable to leave Tangier to study in yeshiva because he did not have a valid passport, Reichmann dropped out of the Lycee Regnault just short of his graduation at age 16, choosing instead to delve into the realms of Gemara with a cousin who had emigrated to Tangier from Hungary. Reichmann was finally able to leave Tangier in 1947, just before his 17th birthday, when his parents were able to obtain a student visa for him to England and a transit visa to Belgium, enabling Reichmann to attend Rabbi Josef Grunwald’s yeshiva in Antwerp. Without the proper residency papers, Reichmann was only able to stay in Belgium for several months after which he returned to England to study in yeshiva and during that time, he began tutoring young Moroccan students on periodic trips back to Tangier.
Reichmann earned his semicha in Gateshead in 1949, never once using the title of “Rabbi” and choosing to keep his actual semicha in a drawer. He transferred to Ponovezh in 1950 and during that time he was asked to help recruit students from Morocco to the yeshiva, an assignment he eagerly accepted.
FILE - (L-R) Dr. David Moskovits,President Endowment for Democracy in Eastern Europe, George Soros, Moshe (Paul) Reichman Nov. 1993. This Historic photo taken at a private meeting in connection with the gala to benefit the Endowment for Democracy Dinner established by Dr. David Moskovits that honored George Soros who was at that time partners with Paul Reichmann whose brother Albert Reichmann chaired the Endowment, sponsors of the Masaros Avos School in Budapest, an initiative of the Skulener Rebbe Shlita. (Photo credit: The Friedlander Group)
Reichmann contemplated entering the kollel program in Gateshead in 1952 but was told that doing so would necessitate a commitment of several years, effectively putting a stop to his efforts educating Moroccan youth, something he was unwilling to do. Instead, Reichmann went back to Israel, this time to study at the Mir under its rosh yeshiva, R’ Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz. Ten months later, Reichmann received a telegram from R’ Avraham Kalmanowitz of the Vaad Hatzalah, urging him to return to Morocco and in 1953 Reichmann relocated to Casablanca in order to work as the unpaid educational director of Otzar Hatorah, an American sponsored group that ran over four dozen Moroccan schools.
Reichmann married his wife, Lea Feldman, in the Swiss municipality of Montreux in 1955 and the two traveled together in Morocco on behalf of Otzar Hatorah for one year, also dabbling in the shirt trade. Much to the relief of his parents, who expected their son to go into the family business as a way of supporting his family, Reichmann left Casablanca in 1956, but told others that his time in Casablanca was time well spent and was quoted in the 1990’s as saying, “Even 40 years later if you ask what was my greatest achievement, I would say it wasn’t anything to do with business: it was the work I did in Casablanca.”
Urged by his brother Ralph to come to Toronto to join him in the building materials business, Reichmann and his wife traveled to New York via London, where Reichmann made contacts in the steel business, hoping to become the North American representative for companies that exported building materials.
Not finding New York to their liking, the Reichmanns moved to Montreal, eventually settling in Toronto. Reichmann first began doing business in building materials as Olympia Steel and later, together with his brother Ralph, bought out his brother Louis’ company Olympia Floor and Wall Tile.
The Reichmanns purchased their five bedroom home in the Glenwood section of North York in 1966, soon joined in the area by brothers Albert and Ralph, as well as their parents. One year later the family was instrumental in building a new Bais Yaakov in the area, merging two existing local schools, eventually adding a high school and a teachers college for young women.
Reichmann also founded the Mesivta Yesodei Hatorah in the 1980’s for his own son Henry, when he felt his son wasn’t being sufficiently challenged at his current yeshiva.
As the Reichmann family business Olympia & York enjoyed tremendous prosperity, their generosity, particularly towards religious institutions, was legendary. It is estimated that in the 1970’s they distributed $3 to $5 million annually to needy individuals by the hundreds, particularly Moroccan immigrants, as well as Orthodox institutions.
While the Reichmanns supported many schools in Canada and the United States, much of their tzedaka found its way to schools in Israel and France and as a matter of principle, they contributed to every Orthodox school that asked for a donation. They were also known to dispense business advice, countersign for mortgages and business loans and mediated occasional disputes. Their charity was so widespread that it is said that after the collapse of their Olympia & York empire in 1992 there was a significant increase in the number of people from the North York area who were added to the welfare rolls.
The Funeral procession for Toronto real estate mogul Paul Reichmann arrives at the Bais Yaakov Girls School in Toronto on Saturday October 26, 2013.(Photo by Aaron Vincent Elkaim/VINnews.com)
One of the few Ashkenazic families to champion the cause of Sephardic education, Reichmann felt strongly that supporting Sephardic schools was an extension of his earlier work in Morocco. Many of the rabbonim now running these schools were his former colleagues at Otzar Hatorah or his proteges at Gateshead and Reichmann gave generously of both his time and his money. Reichmann was also responsible for setting up dozens of schools for Sephardic girls in Israel and encouraged others to donate generously to the cause of furthering religious education for the Sephardic community.
By 1977 Olympia & York was heavily involved in real estate and having made significant contributions to the Canadian market, Reichmann set his sights on New York City, which was in difficult financial straits. His purchase of eight skyscrapers from the Uris Building Corporation was later called by some “the deal of the century” and Meyer S. Frucher, a top appointee of then Governor Mario Cuomo had words of high praise for Reichmann’s latest acquisition.
“There have been two great deals in the history of New York. The first was when the Dutch bought this land of Manhattan. The second was when the Canadians bought the island again.”
While Olympia & York endured both extreme highs and lows, Reichmann earned a reputation for honesty and integrity that is rarely seen in the business world. His unique ability to balance both extreme wealth with an equally extreme dedication to his religious observance earned him the respect of many greats, both in the world of business and the world of Torah.
While Reichmann will be long remembered for his incredible business acumen and his staggering generosity. he left behind a legacy in the business world that has boundless benefits for Jews worldwide, according to one acquaintance.
“Reichmann raised the spirits of every frum Jew in business. I was able to walk around conducting business openly as a Jew, with my head held high as I knew that Paul Reichmann was featured in newspapers all over the world as an honest businessman. Until Reichmann, many in the world had no idea that frum Jews can be observant, be shomer Shabbos and still conduct real estate transactions of epic proportions. There is no doubt that Reichmann made a major positive impact in the world for the many Jews who conduct business today.”
"Holy" Chassidic Mosdos of Monsey will back St. Lawrence for Town Supervisor because he will let the children be in buildings without fire codes
All Chassidic Mosdos are looking to back St. Lawrence, as Town Supervisor, who is being investigated by the FBI.
This is causing a massive Chillul Hashem; when gentiles see how the Jews who stood at Har Sinai listening to the words of G-D say "LO SIGNOV," will back an individual who is probably going to be indicted at any time now. They don't care if this sets a bad example for our "tinokes shel bais rabbon." They dont care that the innocent children are in buildings that are fire traps as long as St. Lawrence lets them "do what they want."
If the Mosdos actually back St. Lawrence, the probabilities are that the Anti- Semitic Preserve Ramapo party will get in.
For the Mosdos its all about the $$$$$$$$! What a massive "Chillul Hashem"!
Shame on you, Vishnitz, New Square, Satmar, Pupa, Vien etc... Shame on You!
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| St. Lawrence surrounded by Chassidishe Tuches Lekers |
If the Mosdos actually back St. Lawrence, the probabilities are that the Anti- Semitic Preserve Ramapo party will get in.
For the Mosdos its all about the $$$$$$$$! What a massive "Chillul Hashem"!
Shame on you, Vishnitz, New Square, Satmar, Pupa, Vien etc... Shame on You!
Friday, October 25, 2013
Paul (Moshe) Reichmann, Considered To Be One Of The World's Richest Passes Away
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| Real estate developer Paul Reichmann (arm only visible) holding up photo of himself (credit-Steve Behal) with 1 Canada Square, the centerpiece of the 71-acre Canary Wharf development, in bkgrd. (Photo by Suzanne Opton//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) |
Canadian businessman, activist and philanthropist Paul (Moshe) Reichmann passed away this morning in Toronto at the age of 83.
Mr. Reichmann had been in poor health and wheelchair bound for the past several years.
Born to Samuel and Rene Reichmann in Vienna, Reichmann was the son of a successful Hungarian egg merchant. The Reichmann family narrowly escaped Nazi occupation, leaving Austria for Hungary on the day it was annexed by the Germans. Traveling first from Hungary to France, the Reichmanns finally settled in Tangier, where the senior Reichmann became a prosperous currency trader.
According to a New York Times article reporting on Anthony Bianco’s book, “The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune and the Empire of Olympia & York”, Reichmann’s mother sent thousands of packages of food to Auschwitz inmates and was responsible for having visas issued to several thousand Jews in Budapest.
After World War II, Reichmann studied in several yeshivos including Gateshead and the Mir in Jerusalem, leaving to become the educational director of Morocco’s Ozar Hatorah in 1953 at the request of Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz. Reichmann was instrumental in overhauling the curriculum of the school which served 1000 students and upgrading its staff. Reichmann also traveled all across the country creating additional schools for thousands of Jewish children in Morocco.
Reichmann’s married his wife Lea Feldman in 1953 and made his first foray into the business world that same year when he began selling shirts. The couple left Morocco in 1956 and traveled to New York, eventually settling in Toronto, soon to be joined by other family members.
In 1964, Reichmann and his three brothers founded their legendary property development firm Olympia and York, which built major financial complexes including the World Financial Center in New York and First Canadian Place in Toronto.
The Reichmanns were well known for their integrity and despite their financial success, they lived relatively modestly and never apologized for their religious observances, wearing yarmulkas openly and shutting down their construction sites on Shabbos and Jewish holidays.
Reichmann was once quoted as having told a relative, “What multiplied my initial success by a factor of a hundred had nothing to do with my own efforts. It was Hashem’s will that I was successful on such a scale.”
While Reichmann was forced to resign from Olympia and York after it went bankrupt in 1992 he successfully rebuilt a portion of his empire. Reichmann announced his retirement in 2005 at age 75 and just eighteen months later reversed his decision, setting up a $4 billion fund and new offices in Great Britain and the Netherlands.
Together with his brothers, Reichmann had a reputation for his generosity, donating hundreds of millions to yeshivos in Israel, Canada and the United States. While Reichmann was known for living relatively simply, he had a passion for collecting rare and valuable seforim.
Brooklyn, residence David Moscovits, who founded the Masores Avos American Endowment School, an institution that was funded substantially by the Reichmann family, had an extremely close relationship with Reichmann and remembered him warmly.
“If anyone would like to see an example of Torah, avoda and kiddush Hashem, this is what R’ Moshe was,” Dr. Moscovits told VIN news. “His eidelkeit, his neimus, his respect for another human being was indescribable. When it came to ahavas Hashem, avodas Hashem, he never stopped.”
The Funeral is said to take place this Motzi Shabbos 9:00 PM EST, in Toronto at Bais Yaakov Girls school - 15 Saranac st.
Frum man allegedly molests child on Monsey Trails Bus UPDATED
Today at 12:30pm Friday, Erev Shabbos a child was molested on the Monsey trails bus coming from Brooklyn to Monsey. A witness on the bus called 911 while child was still on the bus and told police what happened.
Ramapo Police waited for the bus and arrested the Haredi man.
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