Rabbi Naftoli Herman Neuberger Z"L , The" Light Of Israel" The Charedim Attempted To Extinguish
I will have you read the two eulogies written by the self-appointed spokesmen for Orthodox Jews. Please read them carefully, for what they DO say and for what they DO NOT DARE say.
"My eulogy" and comments will be at the end of their articles.
UOJ
Rabbi Naftoli Neuberger, zt"l, and Us
by Jonathan Rosenblum
Mishpacha Magazine
November 10, 2005
Rabbi Aharon Kotler once told his friend Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, "I only envy you one thing: Rabbi Neuberger." Reb Aharon was referring to Rabbi Naftoli Neuberger, Ner Israel's long-time president.
Reb Aharon's envy is easily understood. Ner Israel's 90-acre campus is the largest in the world, and serves nearly 1,000 students in the high school, beis medrash and kollel. The campus boasts over hundred housing units for the faculty, administrators, and kollel families. There is no parallel anywhere in the world. After a visit to the campus a few years ago, MK Yuval Steinitz told me that it reminded him of a yeshiva kibbutz.
All this was the result of Rabbi Neuberger's breadth of vision.
Running and raising the funds for such a large institution, with an annual budget of nearly $10 million dollars, would have been a full-time job for any man. But Rabbi Neuberger's impact extended far beyond the Ner Israel campus.
Despite his strict, uncompromising religious observance, he was a revered figure among all segments of the Baltimore Jewish community, as the extensive coverage given to his passing by the Baltimore Jewish Times and the presence at his levaya of the top leadership of the Jewish federation attests.
The Orthodox community of Baltimore is more integrated into the general communal framework than that of any major city in the United States. As a consequence, the non-Orthodox community pays greater heed to Orthodox concerns than in other cities. When it was proposed to open a suburban Jewish Community Center on Shabbos, for instance, one of the most prominent local Reform leaders wrote an impassioned letter against doing so, and the proposal was defeated. Much of the credit for this goes to Rabbi Neuberger's insistence on maintaining ties with the communal leadership, even as that leadership understood that he could not and would not ever compromise on halachah.
Nearly every person interviewed by the Baltimore Jewish Times mentioned Rabbi Neuberger's overwhelming love for his fellow Jews – as Howard Tzvi Friedman, the incoming president of AIPAC, put it, "every Jew, any kind of Jew." He never failed to respond to any request for help, and if he heard that a Jew was in danger anywhere in the world, he would move heaven and earth to help him. That concern for every Jew was the key to his influence with those far removed from his own high standards of observance.
Perhaps his greatest achievement on behalf of world Jewry was the rescue of thousands of Iranian Jews after the fall of the Shah. That rescue required international diplomatic and political connections, and Rabbi Neuberger was the initiator and one of the masterminds of the operation. Over the years, over 800 Iranian students studied at Ner Israel, providing a level of rabbinical scholarship that allowed the Iranian community to reestablish itself in America on a stronger Torah footing than in Iran.
Nor was Rabbi Neuberger's influence confined to the Jewish community. His counsel was sought by local, state and national politicians. Both the mayor of Baltimore and the governor of Maryland attended his levaya. Congressman Benjamin Cardin told the Baltimore Jewish Times, "He is truly one of the great thinkers of our community. . . . He is in a class by himself, the person you go to when you want to talk about political issues."
Senator Barbara Milkuski credited Rabbi Neuberger with having given her the initial push she needed to run for the Senate. She once related at a Ner Israel dinner how she had turned down an invitation to dine with Vice-president Al Gore that night. "I said, "Presidents come and go. I've got to go with Rabbi Neuberger."
Politicians found in his modest office at Ner Israel something they could find nowhere else: disinterested advice and the chance to escape the seemy, calculating political world for the company of a genuinely high-minded person. Two weeks before Rabbi Neuberger's passing, Maryland Governor Robert Erlich visited Rabbi Neuberger, and the latter reminded him that winter was fast approaching and that something must be done for the many poor people who would not be able to afford heating fuel.
That remark was typical of his genuine interest in making the world a better place. Rabbi Neuberger rescued the concept of tikkun olam from the Reformers, who have kidnapped it. Far from serving as an alternative to mitzvah observance, Rabbi Neuberger's public activities proclaimed tikkun olam to be the goal of a life of Torah and mitvos.
The only communal leader of the last fifty years who can be mentioned in the same breath with Rabbi Neuberger is Rabbi Moshe Sherer, zt"l, the president of Agudath Israel of America. The two were bochurim together at Ner Israel, and lifelong friends and partners. They shared an acute understanding of the political process and people, commanded the respect of a vast array of politicians and public officials out of all proportion to the votes they could deliver, and were able to convey an attitude of hating the sin not the sinner to every Jew they met, whether in a public or private context. Among their many major projects together were the Iranian rescue, creation of a national accreditation agency for yeshivos gedolos, which has brought tens of millions of dollars in federal funding into yeshiva coffers, and the preservation of the draft deferment for divinity students.
Contemplating the influence of figures like Rabbi Neuberger and Rabbi Sherer in America, those of us living in Israel cannot help but feel a certain envy. Who can imagine, for instance, a secular Israeli political leader visiting any chareidi leader to discuss issues of general national concern, except in the context of coalition negotiations? Those discussions would quickly get down to horsetrading over how much chareidi support would cost in terms of support for yeshivos. The context is hardly conducive to secular politicians going away with a heightened respect for the Torah.
The blame does not rest on our communal leaders. The structure of Israeli politics and society makes it much more unlikely that a Rabbi Sherer or a Rabbi Neuberger will emerge – e.g., the fact that much of the government financing of chareidi institutions comes only through supplemental budgets that must be renegotiated each year using political threats. In addition, the media consistently downplays the activities of chareidi politicians on matters of common concern, such as those of MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni on environmental issues.
But the fact remains that outside of a handful of geniuses of chesed, such as Rabbi Elimelech Firer and Rabbi Uri Lopoliansky, we have failed to convince our fellow Jews of our love and concern for them. We are widely perceived as concerned solely with maintaining the financial support of our communal institutions. And the truth is that if asked to demonstrate our concern with our fellow Jews many in our community would reply that our learning, and therefore larger budgets for our yeshivos, are the best protection for the entire society. Remarkably, however, that response has failed to convince our fellow Jews that we care about them as people.
Even as we mourn the passing of askanim of Rabbi Neuberger and Rabbi Sherer's international stature, it behooves us to consider how we can ensure that others emerge to replace them.
By Avi Shafran
Agudath Israel
The voice on the phone several years back could have belonged only to one of two people, and I really had no reason to imagine that Henry Kissinger would be calling me. To my greater honor, the caller was Rabbi Naftali (Herman) Neuberger, president of Baltimore's Ner Israel Rabbinical College (where I studied in the early 1970s).
Neuberger passed away at age 87 on Friday night, October 21, shortly after lighting the Sabbath candles.
He shared more with Kissinger than a deep, resonant voice and Teutonic accent. Neuberger was brilliant, a formidable negotiator who had a deep understanding of issues and people. If there were a Jewish equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, he would have been a recipient. Several times. Come to think of it, he would have been a contender, too, for the economics prize, considering his transformation of a yeshiva with a few dozen students into a thriving institution with a student body of nearly 1,000 in its high school, post-secondary yeshiva and married-student Kollel — all situated, along with faculty and Kollel housing, on a stunning, sprawling suburban campus that resembles a small, lovely city.
To be sure, the success of Ner Israel Rabbinical College is inextricable from the scholarship and reputation of its founding Rosh Yeshiva, or dean, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman — Rabbi Neuberger's brother-in-law — and of Ruderman's illustrious successors, Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg and Rabbi Yaakov Kulefsky, all of blessed memory. And Ner Israel continues to thrive under the tutelage of the renowned Rabbi Aharon Feldman, may he enjoy a long and fruitful tenure.
But yeshiva deans are educators and inspirers. Yeshivas need builders, too — visionaries who possess the savvy, and not infrequently chutzpah, to identify potential and know what is needed to realize it. That was Rabbi Neuberger. He took out a personal loan (resulting in nervous, sleepless nights) to begin the process that culminated in Baltimore's famed yeshiva. And he worked tirelessly to convince others to build alongside him.
And it wasn't only Ner Israel that he built. He built bridges among Jews and between the Jewish community and others — which helps explain the presence at his funeral of Maryland's governor and Baltimore's mayor, and the expressions of sorrow at his passing from across the Jewish spectrum as well from such non-Jewish luminaries as Cardinal William H. Keeler, the Catholic Church's top liaison to the American Jewish community, and Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat. Neuberger worked with and served as adviser to both Keeler and Mikulski. He was known as a political powerhouse, but this wasn't because of money or voting blocs; everyone simply knew he was a selfless leader whose word was as good as gold.
And Neuberger, assisted by the late president of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, helped build an entire community, too, moving heaven, earth and the U.S. State Department to transplant hundreds of Iranian Jews to these shores (many of whom were enrolled tuition free at Ner Israel). He was also a founder, with Sherer, of AARTS, a network of some 50 post-secondary institutions of higher Jewish learning, and served as its president for many years.
Neuberger was renowned for "being there" for individual members of the community, doing whatever he could (usually quite a bit) to help people with marriage, employment or other issues. He sought no thanks and shunned praise. In keeping with Jewish law, his burial during the week of Sukkot precluded eulogies at the funeral; he would have been pleased.
In my current life as an Agudath Israel spokesperson and media liaison, I had the occasional honor of speaking with him (as I was during that phone call). I also remember well the gracious welcome he gave me and a New York Times reporter I had in tow one spring day in 2000, when we visited Ner Israel.
After lunch and a tour of the campus, we stood outside the main study hall, where several hundred young men in pairs were animatedly arguing points or poring over texts; my guest was clearly intrigued. Neuberger and one of his five sons, Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger, a member of the yeshiva faculty, invited my guest to enter the cavernous, crowded room and engage students in conversation. "Unscripted?" I wondered to myself in public relations horror. Even the reporter hesitated, not wanting to take the students from their studies. But the senior Rabbi Neuberger insisted; he knew the yeshiva he had built.
The reporter went from one pair of students to another; at each stop, the students stood up to welcome the visitor, invited him to sit down with them and happily answered his questions. A good while later he returned, pad filled with notes, eyes with wonder at the "sincerity and idealism" he had encountered. (The resultant article confirmed the positive impact left by his conversations.) Yes, Neuberger knew his yeshiva.
The image that came to mind, though, when I heard of his passing, was one that was more than 30 years old. Walking a path near the building where he had his office, I saw his silhouette on the shade of an adjoining conference room. He was seated, swaying, likely over a volume of the Talmud, doing for whatever time he could manage at the end of a long day what he had enabled thousands of students to do for millions of hours.
May his memory be a blessing.
The True Legacy Of Rabbi Neuberger Z"L, And The Eulogy Of Charedi Judaism
By UOJ
The two above self appointed spokesmen for Orthodox Judaism would have you believe that R' Neuberger's legacy was limited to his askanus, chesed, and political savvy.
He was a man of so many accomplishments and talents, way too voluminous to attempt to delve into on a blog; Iranian Jewry, being certainly one of his greatest.
I am offended as well as all Orthodox Jews with intelligence should be. You can pick up a newspaper any day of the week and find most eulogies to include many of these attributes assigned to many people. Chessed , askanus...any Brooklyn Jew that dies, that's the buzzword at their funeral.Have you not noticed that any behaima in Boro Park, as soon as they die, they become a world famous askan and baal chessed?
The greatest offensive remark these two above guys are guilty of, is associating Neuberger's accomplishments with Moshe Sherer. Moshe Sherer was no Neuberger, what Neuberger forgot Sherer never learned. Sherer needed a podium, a camera, and a soapbox; Neuberger worked for God, and worked his greatest deeds without the spotlight or fanfare.
There was no man, rosh yeshiva or otherwise, that has so positively impacted American Orthodox Jewry in the past forty plus years as Rabbi Herman Neuberger.
I knew Rabbi Neuberger, I ate at his home and he was a guest at ours.
He was a visionary that changed the face of Orthodox American Jewry.
He knew, better than anyone in the world, that for Orthodoxy to survive in America, Yeshiva boys would have to be able to earn a living outside of the Yeshiva.
Yes, he was the number one proponent of a four letter word that ends in "K".
He made it perfectly acceptable and honorable for a Yeshiva boy to go to WORK and support his family.The entire Frum community of Baltimore was built with pride on this principle. He initiated relationships with the major universities, enabling Yeshiva boys to learn by day, and go to college in the evening. The vast majority of his talmidim are frum baalei batim who are bnei Torah and raising generations of frum children. He built a kollel as well for the talmidim that were chinuch or rabbonus bound.
The Fundamentalist Gedolim marginalized and ridiculed him. They called him all kinds of degrading names, including insulting his German heritage and associating him with the Maskilim. My father was at many a meeting where the "Gedolim" referred to Ner Yisroel as a home for the "lost generation" or for the "gur shvacher kinder"(very limited children).
Avi Shafran, a POOR student at Ner Yisroel, mocks in jest R' Neuberger's German accent. He heard it at many a meeting at Agudath Israel. Comparing him to Kissinger, is that the very best you can do? How about comparing him to Samson Rafael Hirsch, the builder of German Jewry with the ability to support their families without becoming shnorrers and welfare cheats? Your condescending and gratuitous remarks reads like something Moshe Sherer would have scripted for you.
Jonathan Rosenblum, how dare you tie in R' Neuberger's accomplishments with a "B" rated actor, Moshe Sherer? How many smiling , political back slapping photos were in Sherer's office? Is that your yardstick of accomplishment, how many millions of dollars one raises or gets from the government? Obviously, you are writing a book about Sherer, a guy you never knew, but are being fed with Agudah and Art Scroll regurgitated propaganda. I also assume, you are getting paid handsomely to participate in the Sherer charade.
I knew Sherer well, too well, he was a "fraud."
Speak to anyone who knew him before he studied politics and acting.
To put him in the same breath with Neuberger is a grievous sin and a lie. Thousands of Iranians were already freed by Rabbi Neuberger's intervention before Moshe Sherer joined the photo op.
The Ner Yisroel campus is a kiddush Hashem. It proves to all of us what can be accomplished with fierce determination, vision and emunah.To have known Rabbi Neuberger was to love him, and people willingly lined up to help him with any and all of his projects.
But his everlasting legacy for Orthodox Judaism is the pride he instilled in his talmidim and all who were in awe of his philosophy of Torah V'Avoda (my words), and would not permit the Moetzes or other moronic Black Hat guys who had NO CLUE what it would take for Judaism to survive in America, to intimidate him or disrupt his vision.
He swam against the Charedi Tsunami, and prevailed. "Everything else is commentary".
Yehi Zichro Boruch!
"My eulogy" and comments will be at the end of their articles.
UOJ
Rabbi Naftoli Neuberger, zt"l, and Us
by Jonathan Rosenblum
Mishpacha Magazine
November 10, 2005
Rabbi Aharon Kotler once told his friend Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, "I only envy you one thing: Rabbi Neuberger." Reb Aharon was referring to Rabbi Naftoli Neuberger, Ner Israel's long-time president.
Reb Aharon's envy is easily understood. Ner Israel's 90-acre campus is the largest in the world, and serves nearly 1,000 students in the high school, beis medrash and kollel. The campus boasts over hundred housing units for the faculty, administrators, and kollel families. There is no parallel anywhere in the world. After a visit to the campus a few years ago, MK Yuval Steinitz told me that it reminded him of a yeshiva kibbutz.
All this was the result of Rabbi Neuberger's breadth of vision.
Running and raising the funds for such a large institution, with an annual budget of nearly $10 million dollars, would have been a full-time job for any man. But Rabbi Neuberger's impact extended far beyond the Ner Israel campus.
Despite his strict, uncompromising religious observance, he was a revered figure among all segments of the Baltimore Jewish community, as the extensive coverage given to his passing by the Baltimore Jewish Times and the presence at his levaya of the top leadership of the Jewish federation attests.
The Orthodox community of Baltimore is more integrated into the general communal framework than that of any major city in the United States. As a consequence, the non-Orthodox community pays greater heed to Orthodox concerns than in other cities. When it was proposed to open a suburban Jewish Community Center on Shabbos, for instance, one of the most prominent local Reform leaders wrote an impassioned letter against doing so, and the proposal was defeated. Much of the credit for this goes to Rabbi Neuberger's insistence on maintaining ties with the communal leadership, even as that leadership understood that he could not and would not ever compromise on halachah.
Nearly every person interviewed by the Baltimore Jewish Times mentioned Rabbi Neuberger's overwhelming love for his fellow Jews – as Howard Tzvi Friedman, the incoming president of AIPAC, put it, "every Jew, any kind of Jew." He never failed to respond to any request for help, and if he heard that a Jew was in danger anywhere in the world, he would move heaven and earth to help him. That concern for every Jew was the key to his influence with those far removed from his own high standards of observance.
Perhaps his greatest achievement on behalf of world Jewry was the rescue of thousands of Iranian Jews after the fall of the Shah. That rescue required international diplomatic and political connections, and Rabbi Neuberger was the initiator and one of the masterminds of the operation. Over the years, over 800 Iranian students studied at Ner Israel, providing a level of rabbinical scholarship that allowed the Iranian community to reestablish itself in America on a stronger Torah footing than in Iran.
Nor was Rabbi Neuberger's influence confined to the Jewish community. His counsel was sought by local, state and national politicians. Both the mayor of Baltimore and the governor of Maryland attended his levaya. Congressman Benjamin Cardin told the Baltimore Jewish Times, "He is truly one of the great thinkers of our community. . . . He is in a class by himself, the person you go to when you want to talk about political issues."
Senator Barbara Milkuski credited Rabbi Neuberger with having given her the initial push she needed to run for the Senate. She once related at a Ner Israel dinner how she had turned down an invitation to dine with Vice-president Al Gore that night. "I said, "Presidents come and go. I've got to go with Rabbi Neuberger."
Politicians found in his modest office at Ner Israel something they could find nowhere else: disinterested advice and the chance to escape the seemy, calculating political world for the company of a genuinely high-minded person. Two weeks before Rabbi Neuberger's passing, Maryland Governor Robert Erlich visited Rabbi Neuberger, and the latter reminded him that winter was fast approaching and that something must be done for the many poor people who would not be able to afford heating fuel.
That remark was typical of his genuine interest in making the world a better place. Rabbi Neuberger rescued the concept of tikkun olam from the Reformers, who have kidnapped it. Far from serving as an alternative to mitzvah observance, Rabbi Neuberger's public activities proclaimed tikkun olam to be the goal of a life of Torah and mitvos.
The only communal leader of the last fifty years who can be mentioned in the same breath with Rabbi Neuberger is Rabbi Moshe Sherer, zt"l, the president of Agudath Israel of America. The two were bochurim together at Ner Israel, and lifelong friends and partners. They shared an acute understanding of the political process and people, commanded the respect of a vast array of politicians and public officials out of all proportion to the votes they could deliver, and were able to convey an attitude of hating the sin not the sinner to every Jew they met, whether in a public or private context. Among their many major projects together were the Iranian rescue, creation of a national accreditation agency for yeshivos gedolos, which has brought tens of millions of dollars in federal funding into yeshiva coffers, and the preservation of the draft deferment for divinity students.
Contemplating the influence of figures like Rabbi Neuberger and Rabbi Sherer in America, those of us living in Israel cannot help but feel a certain envy. Who can imagine, for instance, a secular Israeli political leader visiting any chareidi leader to discuss issues of general national concern, except in the context of coalition negotiations? Those discussions would quickly get down to horsetrading over how much chareidi support would cost in terms of support for yeshivos. The context is hardly conducive to secular politicians going away with a heightened respect for the Torah.
The blame does not rest on our communal leaders. The structure of Israeli politics and society makes it much more unlikely that a Rabbi Sherer or a Rabbi Neuberger will emerge – e.g., the fact that much of the government financing of chareidi institutions comes only through supplemental budgets that must be renegotiated each year using political threats. In addition, the media consistently downplays the activities of chareidi politicians on matters of common concern, such as those of MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni on environmental issues.
But the fact remains that outside of a handful of geniuses of chesed, such as Rabbi Elimelech Firer and Rabbi Uri Lopoliansky, we have failed to convince our fellow Jews of our love and concern for them. We are widely perceived as concerned solely with maintaining the financial support of our communal institutions. And the truth is that if asked to demonstrate our concern with our fellow Jews many in our community would reply that our learning, and therefore larger budgets for our yeshivos, are the best protection for the entire society. Remarkably, however, that response has failed to convince our fellow Jews that we care about them as people.
Even as we mourn the passing of askanim of Rabbi Neuberger and Rabbi Sherer's international stature, it behooves us to consider how we can ensure that others emerge to replace them.
By Avi Shafran
Agudath Israel
The voice on the phone several years back could have belonged only to one of two people, and I really had no reason to imagine that Henry Kissinger would be calling me. To my greater honor, the caller was Rabbi Naftali (Herman) Neuberger, president of Baltimore's Ner Israel Rabbinical College (where I studied in the early 1970s).
Neuberger passed away at age 87 on Friday night, October 21, shortly after lighting the Sabbath candles.
He shared more with Kissinger than a deep, resonant voice and Teutonic accent. Neuberger was brilliant, a formidable negotiator who had a deep understanding of issues and people. If there were a Jewish equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, he would have been a recipient. Several times. Come to think of it, he would have been a contender, too, for the economics prize, considering his transformation of a yeshiva with a few dozen students into a thriving institution with a student body of nearly 1,000 in its high school, post-secondary yeshiva and married-student Kollel — all situated, along with faculty and Kollel housing, on a stunning, sprawling suburban campus that resembles a small, lovely city.
To be sure, the success of Ner Israel Rabbinical College is inextricable from the scholarship and reputation of its founding Rosh Yeshiva, or dean, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman — Rabbi Neuberger's brother-in-law — and of Ruderman's illustrious successors, Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg and Rabbi Yaakov Kulefsky, all of blessed memory. And Ner Israel continues to thrive under the tutelage of the renowned Rabbi Aharon Feldman, may he enjoy a long and fruitful tenure.
But yeshiva deans are educators and inspirers. Yeshivas need builders, too — visionaries who possess the savvy, and not infrequently chutzpah, to identify potential and know what is needed to realize it. That was Rabbi Neuberger. He took out a personal loan (resulting in nervous, sleepless nights) to begin the process that culminated in Baltimore's famed yeshiva. And he worked tirelessly to convince others to build alongside him.
And it wasn't only Ner Israel that he built. He built bridges among Jews and between the Jewish community and others — which helps explain the presence at his funeral of Maryland's governor and Baltimore's mayor, and the expressions of sorrow at his passing from across the Jewish spectrum as well from such non-Jewish luminaries as Cardinal William H. Keeler, the Catholic Church's top liaison to the American Jewish community, and Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat. Neuberger worked with and served as adviser to both Keeler and Mikulski. He was known as a political powerhouse, but this wasn't because of money or voting blocs; everyone simply knew he was a selfless leader whose word was as good as gold.
And Neuberger, assisted by the late president of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, helped build an entire community, too, moving heaven, earth and the U.S. State Department to transplant hundreds of Iranian Jews to these shores (many of whom were enrolled tuition free at Ner Israel). He was also a founder, with Sherer, of AARTS, a network of some 50 post-secondary institutions of higher Jewish learning, and served as its president for many years.
Neuberger was renowned for "being there" for individual members of the community, doing whatever he could (usually quite a bit) to help people with marriage, employment or other issues. He sought no thanks and shunned praise. In keeping with Jewish law, his burial during the week of Sukkot precluded eulogies at the funeral; he would have been pleased.
In my current life as an Agudath Israel spokesperson and media liaison, I had the occasional honor of speaking with him (as I was during that phone call). I also remember well the gracious welcome he gave me and a New York Times reporter I had in tow one spring day in 2000, when we visited Ner Israel.
After lunch and a tour of the campus, we stood outside the main study hall, where several hundred young men in pairs were animatedly arguing points or poring over texts; my guest was clearly intrigued. Neuberger and one of his five sons, Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger, a member of the yeshiva faculty, invited my guest to enter the cavernous, crowded room and engage students in conversation. "Unscripted?" I wondered to myself in public relations horror. Even the reporter hesitated, not wanting to take the students from their studies. But the senior Rabbi Neuberger insisted; he knew the yeshiva he had built.
The reporter went from one pair of students to another; at each stop, the students stood up to welcome the visitor, invited him to sit down with them and happily answered his questions. A good while later he returned, pad filled with notes, eyes with wonder at the "sincerity and idealism" he had encountered. (The resultant article confirmed the positive impact left by his conversations.) Yes, Neuberger knew his yeshiva.
The image that came to mind, though, when I heard of his passing, was one that was more than 30 years old. Walking a path near the building where he had his office, I saw his silhouette on the shade of an adjoining conference room. He was seated, swaying, likely over a volume of the Talmud, doing for whatever time he could manage at the end of a long day what he had enabled thousands of students to do for millions of hours.
May his memory be a blessing.
The True Legacy Of Rabbi Neuberger Z"L, And The Eulogy Of Charedi Judaism
By UOJ
The two above self appointed spokesmen for Orthodox Judaism would have you believe that R' Neuberger's legacy was limited to his askanus, chesed, and political savvy.
He was a man of so many accomplishments and talents, way too voluminous to attempt to delve into on a blog; Iranian Jewry, being certainly one of his greatest.
I am offended as well as all Orthodox Jews with intelligence should be. You can pick up a newspaper any day of the week and find most eulogies to include many of these attributes assigned to many people. Chessed , askanus...any Brooklyn Jew that dies, that's the buzzword at their funeral.Have you not noticed that any behaima in Boro Park, as soon as they die, they become a world famous askan and baal chessed?
The greatest offensive remark these two above guys are guilty of, is associating Neuberger's accomplishments with Moshe Sherer. Moshe Sherer was no Neuberger, what Neuberger forgot Sherer never learned. Sherer needed a podium, a camera, and a soapbox; Neuberger worked for God, and worked his greatest deeds without the spotlight or fanfare.
There was no man, rosh yeshiva or otherwise, that has so positively impacted American Orthodox Jewry in the past forty plus years as Rabbi Herman Neuberger.
I knew Rabbi Neuberger, I ate at his home and he was a guest at ours.
He was a visionary that changed the face of Orthodox American Jewry.
He knew, better than anyone in the world, that for Orthodoxy to survive in America, Yeshiva boys would have to be able to earn a living outside of the Yeshiva.
Yes, he was the number one proponent of a four letter word that ends in "K".
He made it perfectly acceptable and honorable for a Yeshiva boy to go to WORK and support his family.The entire Frum community of Baltimore was built with pride on this principle. He initiated relationships with the major universities, enabling Yeshiva boys to learn by day, and go to college in the evening. The vast majority of his talmidim are frum baalei batim who are bnei Torah and raising generations of frum children. He built a kollel as well for the talmidim that were chinuch or rabbonus bound.
The Fundamentalist Gedolim marginalized and ridiculed him. They called him all kinds of degrading names, including insulting his German heritage and associating him with the Maskilim. My father was at many a meeting where the "Gedolim" referred to Ner Yisroel as a home for the "lost generation" or for the "gur shvacher kinder"(very limited children).
Avi Shafran, a POOR student at Ner Yisroel, mocks in jest R' Neuberger's German accent. He heard it at many a meeting at Agudath Israel. Comparing him to Kissinger, is that the very best you can do? How about comparing him to Samson Rafael Hirsch, the builder of German Jewry with the ability to support their families without becoming shnorrers and welfare cheats? Your condescending and gratuitous remarks reads like something Moshe Sherer would have scripted for you.
Jonathan Rosenblum, how dare you tie in R' Neuberger's accomplishments with a "B" rated actor, Moshe Sherer? How many smiling , political back slapping photos were in Sherer's office? Is that your yardstick of accomplishment, how many millions of dollars one raises or gets from the government? Obviously, you are writing a book about Sherer, a guy you never knew, but are being fed with Agudah and Art Scroll regurgitated propaganda. I also assume, you are getting paid handsomely to participate in the Sherer charade.
I knew Sherer well, too well, he was a "fraud."
Speak to anyone who knew him before he studied politics and acting.
To put him in the same breath with Neuberger is a grievous sin and a lie. Thousands of Iranians were already freed by Rabbi Neuberger's intervention before Moshe Sherer joined the photo op.
The Ner Yisroel campus is a kiddush Hashem. It proves to all of us what can be accomplished with fierce determination, vision and emunah.To have known Rabbi Neuberger was to love him, and people willingly lined up to help him with any and all of his projects.
But his everlasting legacy for Orthodox Judaism is the pride he instilled in his talmidim and all who were in awe of his philosophy of Torah V'Avoda (my words), and would not permit the Moetzes or other moronic Black Hat guys who had NO CLUE what it would take for Judaism to survive in America, to intimidate him or disrupt his vision.
He swam against the Charedi Tsunami, and prevailed. "Everything else is commentary".
Yehi Zichro Boruch!
posted by Paul Mendlowitz | 7:09 PM
59 Comments:
I, too, knew rabbi neuberger. He did many people favors. With more money he could have done more.
But, to be fair, uoj, HE might disagree with you. HE worked very closely with Rabbi Sherer. Why wasn't he as offended as you?
He was practical. So was Sherer. He dressed sharp, looked good, and was Orthodoxy's spokesman. So what if he was practiced, polished, in your eyes, artificial? He got things done.
Together, they founded ARTS which makes possible accredited, phony, yeshiva degrees for everyone "holding by learning."
Phoniness is an artform, wouldn't you agree?
To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, "he went to war with what he had, not with what he wished he had".
People on the inside knew the difference between the two men, one was the real M'ccoy, and one was a Big Mac, overstuffed and full of drek.
uoj, Theres still a prejudice against Ner yisrael ,yu and even
chafetz chaim guys because they wear blue hats. What difference does it make as long as you can
learn and earn.
Agreed. The more Lakewood guys and the like suffer, the more venom will be spewed against frum baalei batim.
blue hats?
this is the problem?
i think not.
college is the issue.
Ner Israel represents materialistic Orthodoxy at its best, a compliment to be sure.
AND, now that we know that UOJ attended there, how could anyone dare say anything negative about the institution?
Drek
Who will spew venom against frum baalei batim? Lakewood guys?
Their anger is leveled at the modern orthodox, the ones who really have some money, the "moderne."
What we love about UOJ is that he spews venom at EVERYONE - phony.
drek
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UOJ'
yOU HAVE HIT 'THE NAIL ON ITS HEAD.'
R.NEUBERGER WAS THE REAL mCCOY..
WITH A VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF KLAL YISREL.
You'll be surprized some girls will not date a guy for wearing a black hat. Also, lakewood goes to "moderne" shuls to ask for money
which is fine. Its for Torah learning, however they wouldn't doven there because mechitza too low.It just seems odd, money kosher---shul not.
i mean blue hat above----correction
UO;
didn't know you had it in you to say good things about anybody or anything.
Tikun Olam, indeed.
Keep it up.
Ron-go back to the nut house and take your meds.
ron. you are over reacting to uoj.
your bloodline is secure. Sephardic Jews are smarter than everybody else. You are a genius.
feel better?
If you were Iranian and went to Ner Israel, you'd be even smarter still.
Hey, UOJ.
Just a comment I heard from a chashuva H.S. Rebbe: "you know why yeshiva bachurim only study gemara and not tanach? Because they are afraid of the book of
JOB.
Ron,
For the record, I have been openly treated with contempt, derision, and in a couple of remarkable instances, something bordering on hatred -- openly, for the sole, grave offense of being Ashkenazi --- by Syrian and other Sephardic Jews. The term "J-dub" is a Syrian slur for Ashkenazim," and these boys' families have a lot more kesef than mine does.
I don't get completely enraged, because I think such a viewpoint is their problem, not mine. I did nothing to harm them or their communities, and for them to be as racist as they are within the general Jewish community is absolutely absurd.
So I don't speak Arabic, and they don't speak Yiddish. We can transcend that difference in our primary Jewish language of Hebrew. And if we can't completely, we should at least agree to respect the fact that we have some shared religious and cultural base, and it's probably the ones we share that are the core, as we are still here today as Jews.
Being a gadfly is fine, Ron, but don't do so from a point of Mizrachi victomology. It's really nonsense. The Mizrachi communities in the U.S. are hardly starving or oppressed, and it could be that the bulk of Ashkenazim are grateful to have them. UOJ obviously values that as well, and has railed against any Jewish leader who advocated anything different in their exclusive admission policies. Can't you tell the difference between an off-color joke and someone who actually believes that it's okay to treat someone different because their great-grandparents lived in Shushan instead of the Holy City of Chelm?
Btw- do you defend the Russian Jews even though they aren't religious? Cause you should. They saved southern Brooklyn in the 70's -90's. They were a massive boon for New York City, and New York Jewry. And yet, they are frequently looked down on by other Jews, or feel that they sometimes are.
But know what? None of them ever took it out on me.
Not even once.
bravo, david kelsey, well spoken.
However, with protectors like ron and y.y. and all the rebbes, it looks like Hashem isn't angry today and in good shape.
They speak for Him, die prophetie in our midst.
Ron,
I have disagreed with UOJ many times on this blog. Most notably, please see comments on the Disengagement, Sharon, and YU. But I am not the pc police, and quite frankly, you seem to have more (and better) to say than harping over "race" victomology in the Jewish community.
Maybe because I just don't buy into the supposedly "racial" differences of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, so I don't take these quips so seriously, because I can tell he doesn't perceive a true "racial" divide either.
An extended family of Persian Kohanim came to my hometown briefly before leaving for a more traditional community. On the Yomim Narayim, they (about seven men) did the "duchanim." My father still references that service with awe and respect, and longing for that type of authentic mesorah that he witnessed that one holiday season.
It has been almost twenty years.
By railing against a perceived and serious racial bias at UOJ, you are implicitly implying your assessment that you consider these divisions to be real. I just don't.
Can we agree to disagree on this one, and still agree that there may be times that I do disagree with a man you disagree with more frequently and consistently than I do?
When I said "these divisions," I meant racial divisions.
Ron,
You didn't need to apologize to me, but thanks.
All the best,
DK
i apologize on behalf of all jewish twits.
and the two fageles lived happily ever after.
what an ending.
unfair, chaim moshe.
you are insulting all the sephardics.
Ron-go after that racist chaim moshe
Great post well put
I am a grandson of Rabbi Neuberger do you have an e-mail adress?We should talk
you can talk to all of us, sure.
UOJ- I have been reading your blog for a while now, and sometimes i find what u write interesting, and other times very offensive. However, this past blog on R'Neuberger was amazing. I lived in Baltimore for a few years and I have only good things to say about the entire community and yeshiva. A well written eulogy. Thank you.
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Everyone only has good things to say about Baltimore.
Rabbi Sherer was a "graduate" of Ner Israel.
So was Matis Weinberg.
Dear Grandson Of Rabbi Neuberger,
Thanks for your comments.
I choose to remain anonymous. I would welcome your comments on this blog.
Hamokom yinachem eschem....
UO Rabbi Sherer was not just a publicity hound he was a tireless askan.Rabbi Neuberger was much more behind the scenes
Rabbi Neuberger was very active behind the scenes.
In defense of Rabbi Sherer, who promoted the gedolei Torah, he possibly thought he was making Orthodoxy look good.
Let's give him the benefit of the doubt, unless daddy says no.
Rabbi Sherer deserves alot of credit but Rabbi Neuberger was greater than him.
You make a good point about NIRC being made fun off.I always say there will always be bitter blowhards like Ozer Yonah Kushner and his ilk.
The Ner Yisroel campus is a kiddush Hashem
One of Klal Yisroel's most" eloquent spokesman" Effie Wachsman said having a campus is chukas hagoyim
Rabbi Neuberger's sons shun publicity like he said.You are putting your life in danger if you stand between Shimsi Sherer and a camera.
BTW Shimshi is head of the Flatbush Mensa Society
Effie Wachsman is a Fool!
The one right recent decision the Agudah made, was to keep Shimshi Sherer and his big mouth OUT of the Agudah.
The mouth doesn't fall far from the mustache.
Daddy says No!
Effie-"hoo shemo kain"!
The Agudah has become a vehicle for evrey pain in the rear Hungarian bal- habos to disscuss Klal Yisroel's problems.That is except their own.
Some popmpous fool who sends his daughter to Julie Olebaum's meat factory and thinks if you waer a gartel and you don't eat gebrochts you can cheat on Taxes
I thought Rabbi Oelbaum ran a reputable school, please elaborate.
He is a foolish self righteous polemic
daddy is probably right.
Those mensa men are good actors though, G-d given gifts.
I used to think m senior tried to look like woodrow wilson.
I recently read a biography of wilson. He couldn't do math and didn't know languages, but became president of Princeton and President of the United States.
Just goes to prove what a ba'al hesed the Ribbono shel Olam is - he raises high even those who deserve to be lower - people like you and me.
Wilson's Ph.D. was from Johns Hopkins. Although he didn't like Jews, could it be possible that Rabbi Neuberger helped him arrange yeshiva credits?
I guess not. Wilson didn't like Jews.
It would be interesting to hear from the Neubergers. They know the truth about their father's many involvements, all conducted through efficient, silent diplomacy.
Now, they're probably afraid to lose their anonymity also.
Who isn't - except the guilty?
Or the "truly" righteous. The work they do is gratifying enough.
Why do orthodox jews always have a need to make comparisons, especially regarding different people. Each person has his own abilities and gifts from G-d to achieve greatness, so why compare Rabbi Sherer to Rav Neuberger. Two different people,each distinc. It seems to distract from the person being eulogized. So why do the orthodox do it?Very strange.
the orthodox do what?
hakheh et shinav.
The rabbis worked very closely together and uoj has made valid points.
Rabbi Neuberger really didn't care about his own kavod. He cared about his Yeshiva, Torah, people, all Jews, and the Agudah.
The other was on salary.
I think daddy is right.
How do you know the inner motives of each? You seem so confident to know another person's mind. And i think anoymous above is correct.
I agree. I thought it sullied the memory of Rabbi Neuberger to mention anyone else while eulogizing him. Did he not deserve his own eulogy?
That's what "they do", stick in one of their own guys, maybe the Agudah could now tap in to Ner Yisroel's benefactors.
To stick Sherer in there to boot, like R' Neuberger was helpless without him.
Disgusting journalism by disgusting people.
How do I know, you ask?
I know!
But, the Agudah has always been a distinctly political organization and their political "genius" was M. Sherer. Followers cannot distinguish between leaders.
UOJ is our leader/lehrer/Rebbe/Rosh Yeshiva.
'cause he's gots the money.
"tahts when you lose all credibility"
!!
uoj has credibility with or without names. A truly independent thinker would understand that one of charedi Orthodoxy 's major faults is the tendency towards triumphalism.
Consult a dictionary if the meaning of the term is obscure.
I admit that I lose it sometimes, because of my NO TOLERANCE for B.S. people and their B.S. stories.
These two guys should be ashamed of themselves for pandering to the Agudah crowd.
What crowd should they pander to? Advise them, uoj, and they will do as they are told.
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Jdub is NOT a slur. Jdub is used by Sepharadim in conversation to mean Ashenazim, it is not said with malice.
See jewishpress.com on Wed/thurs the 23rd -24th Nov for a eulogy on Rabbi Neuberger that gives him the praise he truly deserves.
I will take a look!
Avi Shafran is human waste.
He is the official ass-kisser for the Agudah.
Someone mentioned Ozer Yonah Kushner. Who is that?
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