Interviews conducted by Professor William Helmreich with various Roshei Yeshiva 1 Table of Contents: Interviews are in chronological order: Rav Shneur Kotler p. 4 Rav Yaakov Perlow p. 10 Rav Yaakov Weinberg p. 21 Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman p. 28 Rav Elya Svei p. 31 Rav Aharon Schechter p. 37 Rav Osher Kalmanovitz p. 40 Rav Shmuel Berenbaum p. 41 Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky p. 43 Rav Yitzchak Hutner p. 44 Rav Moshe Feinstein p. 46 Rav Gedaliah Schorr p. 48 Rav Mordechai Gifter p. 51 Rav Henoch Lebowitz p. 54 Rabbi Naftali Nueberger p. 60 Rabbi Joseph Kamenetzky p. 66 Edited by: A. B. [email protected] 3 Interview with Horav Shneur Kotler 8-2-77 Translated from Yiddish It is 4:00 P.M. and I am sitting in the offices of the Beth Medrash Govoha in Manhattan at 1220 Broadway. I have an interview with the Rosh Yeshiva. He is a difficult man to reach. One day he is in Europe attending to an emergency, the next day in New York, and the following in Lakewood. It has taken almost two weeks to arrange an appointment, not because Rav Kotler has been avoiding me but simply because he has so much on his shoulders. In addition to running the Yeshiva and acting as its spiritual head he is also very active in fund-raising. The office is located on the top floor of a not-especially-imposing building. The office itself, or waiting room is adequately furnished. From where I sit, I can see two women in long sleeves typing and mimeographing in other rooms. The young girl on my left, similarly attired, serves as receptionist in addition to her typing duties. Above her on a few shelves are telephone books from cities all over the United States, a reminder that this is an institution with an international reputation and attendant responsibilities. It is, after all, the Harvard of Yeshivas. After waiting a few minutes I am ushered into the Rosh Yeshiva’s office. He has just emerged from a meeting with his assistants, Rabbi’s Katz, Yaakov Weisburg, Simayowitz, and Weinberger. His greeting is effusive as he introduces me to these men. “Sholom Aleichem” they say; “Aleichem Sholom”, I respond. I am wearing the traditional Yeshiva Bochur’s outfit – jacket and dark hat while they, men in their mid-thirties and forties are dressed in dark clothing crowned by large, black yarmulkes . The Rosh Yeshiva motions me to sit down as I close the door. Before we get very far (beyond pleasantries), it opens again. Rabbi Shimayowitz enters. Rav Kotler introduces me again and I find myself thinking ‘not surprising he should do that since his mind is always on Torah (This becomes even more clear during the course of the interview as every answer is punctuated or emphasized by a quote from either the Talmud or Chumash.) “I want you to know that I heard you on WEVD and felt it was really “gevaldik” (tremendous). She seemed to give you many opportunities to discuss what you wanted to say. The only thing” and here he paused just for a moment “was what you said about the dormitory. It sounded a little like the guy in charge was something of a Gestapo guy.” At this point Rav Kotler and he both smiled and imperceptibly, it turned into a semi-humorous observation which covered a slight criticism. The rabbi, who functions as one of the “palace guards” shielding the Rosh Hayeshiva from being pestered excused himself and left. At this point the interview began in earnest: RK: Maybe I should first give you the names of some people who can be of help to you. Tell me what information you’re looking for. WH: Well actually, I think the areas I’m interested in will emerge from the questions themselves and then perhaps the Rosh Hayeshiva would be in a better position to suggest names. RK: Okay what’s on your mind? WH: First I wanted to know what were some of the problems that the Rosh Hayeshiva’s father, Olov haSholom encountered in his efforts to start a yeshiva here in America? RK: You mean obstacles? WH: Yes. RK: I was in Israel at the time that my father went to America. He came in 1935. Upon seeing the situation in America he was convinced that the level of education was such that there was really very little possibility to develop gedolai Torah without the creation of more institutions of higher learning. So he went to Mr. Mendelowitz; you know who that is; he’s very important for the work you’re doing. He was the founder of Torah Vodaas and he always wanted to be called “Mr.” not rabbi. Anyway, Rav Aharon gave Mr. Mendelowitz his plans for the type of Yeshiva he felt needed to be founded. It should be in a small town away from the city, a place where people could devote all their time to learning Torah. And we wanted to not just have bochorim but also yungeleit, which was a new thing then. 4 At this point the Rosh Hayeshiva was interrupted by a telephone call and when he finished he reached into a large manila envelope, pulling out a Hebrew article by R. Sherr zt’l, of the Slobodka Yeshiva. It was a section on yeshivas that was part of a larger discussion of Mussar in general: RK: This article is very important for what you’re doing. It explains the philosophy and goals of yeshivas. The Hebrew is quite difficult and I think you should ask Nosson Scherman, who is a gevaldike talmid chochom to translate it for you so that you can get the most out of it. The Rosh Hayeshiva called in a girl and asked her to xerox it. As he did so I took a quick look around the office. It was a small room, spartanly finished. A plain wooden office desk and some chrome-metal chairs perhaps carried in by the previous occupants. The walls were bare but in the bookcases were a set of the Talmud, a Mikra’os gedolos and some other seforim. No fancy carpeting or any other frills. WH: Since there were other yeshiva gedolos already in the U.S. why was it felt there was such a need for them? RK: It’s true that were some yeshiva here but we felt it was not enough and that even more could be done. WH: I see. RK: Getting back to your question, so this was one obstacle. Just the problem of setting up a Yeshiva. My father had to recruit rebbaim from Europe who were qualified. He came here in 1943 again to set up the Yeshiva. For the most part he was involved in Hatzoloh . The whole week he worked on Hatzoloh . He gave shiurim in New York but only over the weekend. He was extremely busy with Hatzoloh . But the main difficulty was that the level of learning here wasn’t that high and our desire was to develop a generation of gedolei Torah who were American trained products and we have done that. There are gedolim today who are Americans, not European. The second obstacle was that my father felt that there should be Torah Lishmo and that all practical benefits would come from it anyway. He felt that Torah Lishmo raises tremendously the general level of the Jewish community. The problem was that this was against the spirit in the country. The people asked: ‘What’s the Tachlis of studying Torah. What can be gained from it?’ This was the attitude. It was hard to explain that sometimes the most lasting things seem to come out from things which seem to have no purpose. During the next phone call, I heard the Rosh Hayeshiva quote something from the Rambam (Maimonides) as he wished a friend a safe journey. At the same time I took note of the fact that in our conversation Rav Kotler constantly sprinkled his response to my questions with quotations from the Torah but then again his was hardly surprising. It merely served to remind that this man who was answering my relatively secular questions was completely steeped in the Torah. His every word, thought and action drew upon this tradition. I also noted that his entire attitude toward me and those around him was friendly, warm, and reassuring. No pomp and circumstance. I recalled how when I had been at the yeshiva visiting no one stood when he entered the Beis Medrash because he had asked that they (the students) not trouble themselves so. RK: The important thing was the spread Torah in America. We built three Kollels --- Detroit, Toronto, and Los Angeles. Now we see that these little places have changed the atmosphere. The whole town has a different view or approach. The outlook on life is changed. There are shiurim and people work with the community. I saw this myself when we visited Los Angeles. WH: In the Rosh Hayeshiva’s opinion, has Orthodoxy moved forward or backward in the last ten years? RK: In Europe, in the past we had problems with all the different types of movements: Socialism, the Haskalah, and other ideologies came into the community. Today the trend is reversed. Orthodoxy is growing and our yungeleit are helping it spread more and more. WH: There are hundreds of yeshivas today with thousands of students. I’m counting the yeshivas ketanas . What accounts for their success? RK: This is one of the greatest phenomenons of our time, this growth.