In Memoriam

Speaking of her feelings for Israel, Irene says, ‘my heart always beats a little faster, and I experience a moment of inner joy, when I land in Lod Airport and feel the ground of Israel under me.’

Even when I was a young girl he cared so much. He would look at me with his blue eyes, and in his calm tone offer warm words of chizuk.

Nothing was more important to Jacob than his family. He treasured each one of his children and grandchildren and was in turn endeared to all of them in full measure.

Yishai Fleisher, who serves as the international spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron, received the second annual "Lion of Zion" Prize for his work that exemplified Fuld's legacy.

My father’s entire rabbinic career was spent in support of the State of Israel including her government, the people, the yeshivot, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], as well as the immigration to Israel of Jews from the Soviet Union from behind the Iron Curtain as well as Ethiopian Jews...

There wasn’t anything that I was afraid to ask my mother, and no matter the question she always gave me the honest answer.

For 45 years Reb Yoel taught Chassidus in Boro Park to chasidim of Belz, Bobov, Boyan, Klausenburg, Ger, Satmar and Vishnitz. He was highly respectful of their approach and taught them to be more appreciative of their Chassidus.

Today I can’t tell you what his speech was, Frank said, but I can tell you, I was blown away. It was the most erudite speech...

With his friendship with YU and loyalty to the cause of Soviet Jewry, it is easy to see why Rabbi Halpern aligned himself with the Triple-S-J even when it was a fledgling organization and advocated for others to participate in its efforts.

My grandfather loved to show me all his books and would ask me if I was learning as well. He would always tell me a story from the Gemara, and his face would light up as he would tell it.

At the heart of that renown, Rabbi Yechezkel Pikus was a quiet, humble man, a man who –wherever he was and whatever he was doing – always had a sefer, a Jewish religious book, at hand to peruse at the first opportunity.

The masses who had visited Rav Chaim seeking his beracha and advice during his lifetime would not let anything keep them from coming to mourn and showing their respects and appreciation for him after his death.

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His name may not appear in the index of chronicles of Jewish life over the past half-century, but his influence as “rey-eh David” – the intimate of rulers – was felt and appreciated immediately.

To describe Rabbi Henkin by that singular – albeit incredible – accomplishment of advanced Torah study for women would be incomplete, to say the least.

On challenging days, I close my eyes and I can feel your embrace which makes me feel safe and secure.

One of my Jewish doctors explained to me that the bark of the willow tree was used as a pain reliever. This got me thinking that even an aravah can have a good influence.

It is very important to know who and where your family came from since history has a way of repeating itself.

For every kid in the shul he had a different joke and a nickname and every kid thought he was they were his best friend, Rabbi Reuven Goldstein, member of the Philadelphia beis din and successor to Brisman at Young Israel of Elkins Park (YIEP), said. He was able to relate to everybody.

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Decades ago, the Orthodox got no respect. There was this sense that modern science contradicted the Torah. Rav Tendler made a huge Kiddush Hashem by disproving that notion, said Rabbi Hershel Schachter.

We all know about the Satmar Rebbe’s anti-Zionist stance, but there was much more to him than his anti-Zionism.

As I sit now with my book of Tehillim, my mother's words echo loudly in my head. "Pray! Use your ko'ach tefilah and pray!"

Tens of thousands of students crowded the streets of Bnei Brak to accompany the man who had been head of the Bnei Brak Beis Din and Rosh Kollel Chazon Ish for many decades.

Rabbi Wallerstein used his experiences as the driving force in taking on projects that would help tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people.

Rabbi Lamm was prepared, indeed proud, to be an “intellectual diplomat” who sought to make peace between competing ideas.

I feel honored to have attended his sermons and lectures. He would weave a tapestry of ideas and words into a poetic bridging of multiple disciplines.

Over the course of his lifetime, Gordon switched faiths fairly often, and following his imprisonment for his role in the riots, Gordon decided to become Jewish.

He was among the first in America to have special tefillot for Israel’s Independence Day, but he was simultaneously least inclined to word these prayer along the lines of the arrival of the redemption or the heralding of the messianic era.

What gave her the superhuman strength to survive? She said that when she was young her father taught her the sentence that represented her Hebrew name Leah. It was “Lo amut, ki echye, v’asaper ma’aseh Ka” – I shall not die, for I will live and tell of G-d’s ways.