RABBI NAFTALI HALEVI NEUBERGER by Jonathan Rosenblum Rabbi Naftali Halevi Neuberger, Z”L, 1918-2005
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
UseThisummer06Rev 5/30/06 11:44 AM Page 46 Profile RABBI NAFTALI HALEVI NEUBERGER By Jonathan Rosenblum Rabbi Naftali HaLevi Neuberger, z”l, 1918-2005. Photo courtesy of Esky Cook ashem is referred to as father to me.” A father does not feel any swered. And he was unsparing of his Hagadol, explain the commen- clear demarcation between himself and time and energy. He once sharply repri- Htators, because the ambit of his children. As Chazal tell us, “A father manded someone who called him in the His concern encompasses every aspect cannot be envious of his son.” Those morning to inform him of a personal of the created world. Not even a blade who described Rabbi Neuberger as a crisis for not waking him in the middle of grass grows unless one of Hashem’s second father attested to their confi- of the night. Rabbi Neuberger thought emissaries strikes it and says: “Grow.” dence that there was nothing he would- nothing of personally chauffeuring a From this we learn that the measure of a n’t do to help them, and that he rejoiced student in the yeshivah who stuttered person—his gadlut (greatness)—is how in their every success as if it were his back and forth to his doctor’s visits. many others are included within his own, without the possibility of any Every night, for at least two hours, active concern, how many are encom- admixture of jealousy. he fielded phone calls from around the passed within his “I.” By that measure, The ambit of Rabbi Neuberger’s country from those seeking his advice few in recent memory can match Rabbi concern was not limited to the thou- on both personal and Klal matters. Naftali (Herman) HaLevi Neuberger, sands of students at Ner Israel Rabbi Moshe Sherer, a personal friend z”l, who passed away last Chol HaMoed Rabbinical College he came to know of Rabbi Neuberger’s from their days Sukkot at the age of eighty-seven. during the nearly seven decades he was together as students at Ner Israel, testi- Among the thousands who gath- at the yeshivah, first as a student and fied that scarcely a day went by that ered on short notice for Rabbi later as the executive director. It extend- they did not consult on some matter of Neuberger’s funeral, one refrain was ed, as Howard Tzvi Friedman, the presi- concern to Klal Yisrael. Among their heard on everyone’s lips: “He was like a dent of AIPAC and a long-time OU lay many common projects were AARTS, leader from Baltimore, put it, to “every the accreditation body for yeshivot, Mr. Rosenblum, a resident of Jerusalem, is the Jew, any kind of Jew.” Rabbi which made it possible for yeshivot to director of Am Echad, a coalition of Jews from Neuberger’s love of his fellow Jew was benefit to the tune of tens of millions of across the spectrum of Orthodoxy committed to the key to his influence on those far dollars in federal student loans; the genuine Jewish unity and continuity. He is the removed from his own strict standards preservation of the Divinity student author of several biographies and writes a weekly column for The Jerusalem Post; he of religious observance. draft exemption and the rescue of the also writes for Maariv. No request for help went unan- Iranian Jewish community. 46 JEWISH ACTION Summer 5766/2006 UseThisummer06Rev.qxp 6/2/06 8:03 AM Page 47 Rabbi Neuberger’s concern was not limited to the Jewish world. Senators, governors and congressmen all consulted with him. Just two weeks A First-Class Rabbi before his passing, Governor Robert Rabbi Neuberger was more than a mentor to me. He was a second Ehrlich came to visit. Rabbi Neuberger father, a close friend and a role model, all in one. Most of all, he showed reminded him that winter was fast me what it means to care for every Jew, and indeed, every person. approaching, and many poor people He treated each and every individual with respect, and he never for- would be without heat. Rabbi got that as a rabbi he constantly needed to make a Kiddush Hashem. I Neuberger had a genuine interest in recall once being on an airplane with him. As we were deplaning, Rabbi making the world a better place and sin- Neuberger stuck his head into the cockpit and said to the pilot and the gle-handedly rescued the concept of flight attendant, “Thank you so much for the wonderful flight. I want to tikkun olam from those who view it as commend you on an excellent landing.” The pilot seemed to blush as he an alternative to mitzvah observance. answered, “I appreciate your kind words.” Once we disembarked, I His public activities proclaimed tikkun turned to Rabbi Neuberger and said, “This particular flight and landing olam to be the goal of a life of Torah were nothing special; why did you need to compliment the pilot?” Rabbi and mitzvot. Neuberger replied that complimenting the captain had given him an The Gemara (Pesachim 49b) uses opportunity to make a Kiddush Hashem. Since then, every time I get off a the term gedolei hador to refer to those plane, and the cockpit door is open, I make sure to say “Captain, great who are great in actions. Rabbi flight!” Neuberger was one of the gedolei hador. Because his love and concern embraced Howard Tzvi Friedman, OU senior vice president, is a communal activist who lives so many, his passing will be felt directly in Baltimore. by thousands. Indeed it is difficult to think of another in our generation whose passing will leave so many with a feeling of irreparable loss. Avodat Hakodesh Rabbi Neuberger’s official title was executive director, and later president, of Ner Israel—titles usually associated in the public mind with fundraising. And indeed Rabbi Neuberger was a fundrais- er par excellence. Within a few years of arriving at Ner Israel in 1938, as a twen- ty-year-old immigrant from Germany who could barely speak a word of English, he had lifted the fundraising burden from the rosh yeshivah and founder of Ner Israel, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman. It would never return. Rabbi Ruderman and his suc- cessors were nearly alone among roshei yeshivah in that they had no part in the Rabbi Neuberger and Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, the late rosh yeshivah of Ner Israel Rabbinical College. Photo courtesy of Esky Cook fundraising for the yeshivah, and could concentrate their full energies on learn- ing and teaching. forced “loans” from the staff in the form sively to his talmidim, without ever hav- Another singular aspect of Ner of late payments, Rabbi Neuberger ing to worry about how he was going to Israel is that the rebbeim are always paid always chose to accept the burden on feed his family. on time. Rabbi Neuberger even himself and take out new bank loans Even during the war years, when arranged it so that they would always instead of delaying payment to his building materials were in short supply, receive a generous bonus before Pesach. rebbeim. He wanted every rebbe in Ner Rabbi Neuberger financed and oversaw Whereas other institutions often take Israel to be able to devote himself exclu- Ner Israel’s move to a new, and much Summer 5766/2006 JEWISH ACTION 47 UseThisummer06Rev 5/30/06 11:44 AM Page 48 larger, site on Garrison Boulevard. Later he purchased a large cornfield outside of Baltimore, which scoffers labeled A Good Eitzah Gebber “Neuberger’s folly.” Today the ninety- acre Ner Israel campus is by far the In addition to his work at Ner Israel, Rabbi Neuberger was also largest yeshivah campus in the United very much involved in the Orthodox Union. An active member of the States, and perhaps the world. It houses OU Board of Directors for at least forty years, he later became a member nearly one thousand students, from of the OU Board of Governors. high school through kollel, and provides Rabbi Neuberger was instrumental in the creation of Camp Sports, housing units for the families of more one of NCSY’s (National Conference of Synagogue Youth) premier sum- than one hundred kolleleit, administra- mer programs. According to Rabbi Jeffrey Greenberg, regional director of tors and rebbeim. New York NCSY and camp director of Camp Sports, Rabbi Neuberger Rabbi Neuberger saw nothing pushed for the expansion of the two-week program called NCSY Goes to demeaning about raising funds for the Yeshivah into the four-week program that is now known as Camp Sports. yeshivah or for any other worthy cause, While the yeshivah’s facilities would normally be closed during the sum- and he taught others that there could be mer, Rabbi Neuberger kept the dining room and the dorms open just for no greater honor than to solicit funds Camp Sports, which is based on the sprawling yeshivah campus. “Some on behalf of Torah. He was fond of might run [a camp like Camp Sports] because it would be a natural feed- quoting Rabbi Ruderman’s observation er into the yeshivah,” says Rabbi Greenberg. “But Rabbi Neuberger ran that the avodah of the Kohanim in the this camp exclusively for the sake of the kids. His concern was for the Beit Hamikdash looked disgusting to an [Jewish] kids in America; he wanted them to get closer to Yiddishkeit.” ignorant boor—like just sloshing Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, former executive vice president of the OU, around in blood and guts. calls Rabbi Neuberger “a good eitzah gebber” (advice giver); because he There was never any question in was close to many roshei yeshivah, he was able to counsel the OU on Rabbi Neuberger’s mind that he was issues concerning the broader Orthodox world.