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“the comforter.” All his life, my father quence quelled the rebellion, and he when it was my father’s turn to drive, Working with his close friend, Eliyahu kept a framed photograph of the Imrei remained in Danville for three more he was determined to get the children Kitov, he translated two of Kitov’s clas- Emes on his desk. years. Many of his congregants became to school on time, despite a terrible sic books, A Jew and His Home and The lifelong friends and loyalists. A surpris- pain in his side. In Norfolk, my father Book of Our Heritage. My father’s final ing number of Danville children were collapsed with what proved to be a resting place is on Har HaMenuchos, “Daddy, tell us again about inspired by my father to pursue careers ruptured appendix. The other father near that of his beloved friend. the shtetl where you grew up,” my sib- in kiruv, chinuch and the rabbinate. made no more threats, and all his chil- My youngest brother was born just lings and I used to joke. We knew our After leaving Danville, my father dren grew up to build Torah-true before the Six Day War, and soon after father was American-born, and he spoke served as YU’s mashgiach ruchani (spiri- homes. that my father became the rabbi of the English eloquently. Yet there was always tual advisor) for a short time. My father The following year, my father started Young Israel of Far Rockaway, a post something of the foreigner about him. ultimately moved away from the YU a day school in Newport News. He he held for eight years. As time passed, His parents were Gerrer Chassidim from orbit, yet often expressed hakaras hatov taught second grade himself. My sib- my father’s longing for Eretz Yisrael Poland; his Yiddish was warm and rich. (gratitude) for what he had gained there. lings and I have vivid memories of him became more fervid; he finally fulfilled He spoke intimately and poignantly of teaching our classes how to daven, his lifelong dream of making aliyah in the great Torah personalities of Poland, telling us that every word of tefillah cre- 1975. Russia and Germany. During the 1950s my father ates its own malach (angel)—but if the My father won the respect and admira- My father attended yeshivah for ele- was one of the founders of NCSY, the words are rushed and mispronounced, tion of rabbanim, roshei yeshivah and mentary and high school, which was OU program that brings thousands of an army of crippled angels go up to Chassidic rebbeim in Israel across the highly unusual in those days. In irreligious teenagers to Torah. Many heaven, with broken legs or arms! Like Orthodox spectrum. He maintained a Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan people who are now grandparents still the people of Danville, many Newport unique perspective, seeing all sides of WHOWHO (Yeshiva University), he was a talmid of remember his electrifying addresses at News congregants maintain strong every Orthodox group in Israel with per- Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Other NCSY conventions. bonds with my family to this day. fect clarity. Identifying fully with no rebbeim he loved included Rav Moshe In 1957, with four young children, From 1963 to 1967, my parents group, he was beloved and sought out by Bick and Rav Moshe Polayeff. my parents moved to Newport News, lived in the Bronx, New York, where all. At his funeral, one of the speakers WILL Ultimately my father received his semi- Virginia. The nearest day school was my father served as a roving ambassa- compared him to Queen Esther, who was WILL chah and BA in philosophy from YU. in Norfolk, an hour away. Our carpool dor and troubleshooter for Torah claimed by each of the Persian Empire’s It was hard then to find a girl who was not always punctual, and one of Umesorah, the association of Jewish 127 provinces as its own. wanted to marry a rabbinical student, the fathers threatened to put his day schools. He founded The Jewish While living in Jerusalem, my father but fortunately the Creator had pre- daughter in public school. One day, Observer and served as its first editor. played a vital role in thwarting one of COMFORTCOMFORT pared my mother, Shaindel Freund (may she live to be 120). Like my Zeide Meir, my Zeide Moshe Yechiel held on to Yiddishkeit with all his The Early Years USUS NOW?NOW? might in America (“by his fingernails,” Rabbi Bulman and I were classmates at Yeshiva Chassidut, and I was amazed at the range of his knowl- By Toby Katz my mother says). Despite a limited University, and studied together under the Rav, zt”l. We edge. Equally impressive was his delivery—in a some- Jewish education, my mother had a were not part of the same chavruta, but we socialized what high-pitched voice; he was truly eloquent in both Photo courtesy of Ohr Somayach courtesyPhoto of Ohr passionate desire to marry a yeshivah together—especially on Friday nights, after the Shabbat Yiddish and English, but especially the former. How I Rav Bulman, zt”l (1925-2002) bachur. When my parents met, Adam meal, on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg envied him—and how much I learned from him! truly found his rib. section. Young Orthodox Jews of all schools—Torah Nachman and I agreed on many things, and disagreed They married in 1950 and my father Vodaath, Yeshiva University, Chaim Berlin, Chofetz about many others. But whether we were of the same became rabbi of a small shul in Danville, Chaim—used to walk and talk, and the talk was often of opinion or not, there was a mutual feeling of respect and, Virginia (the city where I was born). the highest caliber (to the surprise, no doubt, of those at least from me to him, admiration. I never found him av Nachman ond wife and newborn son in a The shul, unlike many others, had a who looked upon this weekly promenade with a jaun- to be provincial, and he was a modeh al haemet. Our R kosher mechitzah, a ladies’ balcony. Bulman, zt”l, taught and inspired pogrom. He was left alone to raise two diced eye). What intrigued me about Nachman, and friendship was not diminished by distance or long lack of thousands of individuals, but I have small daughters. All this happened To his dismay, my father discovered what evoked affection and respect, was both the content contact; the rare occasions we met after he made aliyah the privilege of being able to say, “He before he was 25 years old. He mar- on erev Rosh Hashanah that the elderly and form of his conversation. The content was always reawakened in us the old, warm feelings of our youth. was my father.” Although I cannot do ried his third wife, my grandmother women sat downstairs on Yom Tov, high and serious. He was a yerei Shamayim but never nar- Nachman is gone now, to my great distress, but I know him justice, I will try to convey some- Ettel, and their firstborn son died of next to a dubious partition. A hastily row or shallow. He lived and breathed ahavat Yisrael, and that in the empyrean abode where his pure neshamah thing of the man my father was. famine during World War I. My kashered mechitzah was not an aesthet- he was distressed about oh, so many things in the Jewish now rests, he is passionately lecturing the angels on a My grandfather, Meir Bulman, lost grandparents then moved to America. ic success, and there was much mur- community that he loved! He was critical of the less frum host of great issues. And they, messengers of the his first wife in childbirth, and his sec- Years passed; there were no more muring. One lady sat outside all and the too frum, let alone the non-frum. He approached Almighty who are supposed to know only Hebrew, will children. They wrote to the Imrei morning in protest. My father almost all problems from the point of view of musar and no doubt find their heavenly hearts warmed by his liter- Ms. Katz is a Judaic Studies teacher, Emes, the Gerrer Rebbe, for a scrapped his prepared sermon, and ary, yet expressive, idiomatic and zaftig Yiddish. writer and homemaker living in North berachah. At age 43, my grandmother delivered an impassioned defense of Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm is the president of Yeshiva University. Zol er hobn a lichtign Gan Eden! Miami Beach, Florida. gave birth to my father, Nachman— the sanctity of the synagogue. His elo- JEWISH ACTION Winter 5763/2002 JEWISH ACTION Winter 5763/2002 Mayor Teddy Kollek’s more nefarious of peace and harmony, with everyone and killed. The grief-stricken owner My father was an Agudist, but an My father once made a wry com- schemes. Kollek thought he could feeling that they were working for a buried the dog in his yard, and asked my unusual one: He had a sympathetic view ment about various principles of alter the city’s religious character by My father envisioned that his common goal—to serve Hakadosh father to say a few words. And he did! My of Mizrachi and a deep appreciation for Judaism that had been appropriated by building a sports stadium near a reli- community would be a kehillah, like Rav Baruch Hu.” siblings and I were convulsed with laugh- the writings of Rav Kook. He once said one or another stream. “Because of the gious neighborhood.

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