Visitors streamed to them for guidance and blessings; leading Rabbonim treated them with reverence. Living in a humble shack, poverty clung to them like the dust of the surrounding Jezre'el Valley. Childless themselves, they cared for cast-off children with profound handicaps. By life's end, Rebbitzen Chaya Sara Kramer, together with her husband Rabbi Yaakov Moshe […]
Some people seem born to lead more interesting lives than others. Meyer Birnbaum is one of them. Relive with him the crunching poverty of Brooklyn during the Depression. Experience his spiritual awakening in Young Israel. Meet R’ Elchonon Wassserman, R’ Yitzchak Hutner, and Mike Tress through the eyes of an American teenager. Encounter the anti-Semitism […]
The life and times of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.
To everyone, Elemelech Gavriel (Michael G.) Tress was Mike, from great rabbis and high government officials to the youngsters on the streets and the survivors he rescued from certain death. What made this man so outstanding, so winning, so idolized? He was as charismatic and effective a leader as the fledgling American Orthodoxy possessed, before […]
The Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilnius, is one of the greats of Jewish history. By age 5, he had mastered the written Torah. By age 8 he was a world-class Talmudic scholar. In his spare time he studied mathematics, astronomy, and other sciences. There are many legends about the Gaon, and some are undoubtedly […]
