(Courtesy of Ezras Torah) Imagine if the venerated Chofetz Chaim came to town and you had the chance to receive a bracha from him. Wouldn’t you grab the opportunity? Now you can, through supporting Ezras Torah, the illustrious charity organization that recently celebrated its 100th anniversary as one of America’s first tzedakah organizations, established by American Jewry in 1915 in response to the call of the Chofetz Chaim and R’ Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.
The year was 1915. European Jewry was suffering through the turmoil of World War I. From Lithuania to Poland to Hungary, hundreds of Jewish communities had been ravaged through the crossfire of war. Numerous families had been shattered and lives lost. Illustrious yeshivos were disbanded, refugees from Poland and Lithuania were dispersed across the continent, and many Jews were left penniless. Much of the infrastructure that had supported European Jewry for hundreds of years had been left in shambles.
The Chofetz Chaim and R’ Chaim Ozer, seeing the havoc wrought by the war, wrote a desperate letter to the Agudas Harabbonim, the main Orthodox rabbinic organization in America at the time, beseeching them for help. The Agudas Harabbonim organized an urgent meeting to create Ezras Torah, an organization dedicated to helping rabbis, students and other Torah Jews whose lives had been destroyed by the war. Appeals were made across America and American Jewry responded generously. Donations poured in from Omaha, Nebraska, to Camden, New Jersey, and numerous other communities in between. Money sent to Europe went to help rebuild families, communities, schools and yeshivos destroyed by the war.
Letters from 1915 to 1920 shed light on the anguish of European Jewry and the relief provided by Ezras Torah. Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer from Slutzk, Rav Yaakov Perlow from Stolin and Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski from Vilna all wrote to Ezras Torah expressing appreciation for their financial aid and beseeching them for continued assistance. Of particular note, the holy Chofetz Chaim wrote to Ezras Torah expressing gratitude for their assistance to his yeshiva exiled from Radin, and adds, “Please continue to do what you can to assist us, and may Hashem repay you”—a blessing that exists even today for all who contribute to Ezras Torah.
Even after the guns of World War I fell silent, Ezras Torah continued to aid those of European Jewry still struggling with pogroms, poverty and persecution.
In 1926, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin became president of Ezras Torah. His name would become forever entwined with the organization that he so selflessly led for the next half century, a tumultuous period that would see the devastation of the Holocaust and the rebuilding of Eretz Yisrael. Rav Henkin was one of the preeminent rabbanim of America, the acknowledged gadol hador before Rav Moshe Feinstein. He was known to every community rabbi throughout the United States as the address to resolve the thorniest halachic issues of the day.
Rav Henkin was a prolific writer and authored sefarim on some of the most complex talmudic and halachic topics. In 1925 he wrote ”Perushei Ibrah.” The first half was devoted to topics related to marriage and the laws of testimony, and the second half were Rav Henkin’s drashos. In 1946, he published Edus L’Yisrael, a compilation of complex practical halachos, and in 1955 he published 32 of his halachic and hashkafic discourses titled “Lev Ibrah.” In addition, he wrote numerous halachic and hashkafic essays in rabbinical journals and in the Hebrew and Yiddish newspapers.
Yet despite his gadlut in Torah he did not head any yeshiva, instead dedicating an enormous amount of his time to Ezras Torah. Rav Henkin’s stature was such that Rav Elyashiv would title him the mara d’Atra of America, yet he willingly sacrificed the serenity of his study and the honor he deserved to travel to shuls and hotels far and wide to appeal for Ezras Torah. His salary was $50 a week, meager by any standard, and often he gave most of it away. Throughout his tenure the astronomical sum of over six million dollars (equivalent to over a hundred million dollars today) was distributed through Ezras Torah. This was a man who lived in an apartment with a leaky roof, who would not spend extra for a more beautiful esrog for Sukkos, saying he could not afford it, yet who raised thousands of dollars for the poor and needy.
Throughout the tormented years of the Holocaust, Ezras Torah, in conjunction with the Vaad Hatzalah, assisted thousands of families fleeing the Nazi occupation, sending aid and food to refugees, from Shanghai to Siberia. After the Holocaust, as survivors poured onto American and Israeli shores, Ezras Torah was there to help them rebuild their broken lives.
Following the establishment of the State of Israel, the Chief Rabbinate appealed to Rav Henkin to expand the scope of Ezras Torah’s operations in the Holy Land. Ezras Torah worked with the Israeli government and local municipalities to provide affordable homes for Torah-observant Jews. These efforts led to the construction of Shikun Ezras Torah, a well-known Jerusalem neighborhood established under the aegis of Ezras Torah, in addition to other developments built in Sanhedria Murchevet and Bnei Brak.
Other illustrious rabbanim who led Ezras Torah over the years included Rav Dovid Rosenberg, Rav Naftoli Riff, Rav Dovid Lifshitz and Rav Menachem Gettinger, may the mentioning of their names be for a blessing.
Today, Ezras Torah assists close to 7,000 families devoted to Torah learning per year, for needs as diverse as wedding expenses for orphans, housing grants and loans, holiday grants, maternity grants and emergency medical assistance.
The next upcoming fundraising event for Ezras Torah will be a speaking engagement by Rabbi Rabbi Avrohom Schnall, שליט”א, rav of Congregation Reyim Ahuvim in Monsey, on Tuesday, August 21, with Mincha at 7:30 p.m., in the home of Dr. & Dr. Zvi Loewy, 4-50 Lyncrest Ave in Fair Lawn. Refreshments will be served. (The Ezras Torah Luach 5779 will be given out as a gift of appreciation for attending the event.) Contributions can also be sent to Ezras Torah, 1540 Route 202, Suite 2, Pomona, NY 10970 or online at www.ezrastorah.org.
