Memory Lane: Louis (Leibish) Borgenicht, Patron of Torah Institutions

Louis Borgenicht was one of the most prominent of Boro Park’s philanthropists. As his matzeivah reads, he was a “benefactor of the poor, champion of the oppressed, servant of his people, inspiration of his family. As we will see in this brief overview of his rags-to-riches story, these accolades are an apt tribute to a man who gave generously to institutions and individuals, both locally and abroad.  

From Hungary to America

Yehuda Leibish Borgenicht was born to his parents, Reb Nosson Dovid and Gittel Borgenicht, in a town in the Tarnow region of Galicia on August 16, 1862. He began his own life as an often-hungry boy in the village of Zakliczyn, in Polish Galicia, growing up in persistent poverty.  “There,” he says in his later-published memoir The Happiest Man, “I lived the life of a peasant. I wore the same tattered clothes. The boots I reserved for Shabbosim and Yomim Yovim.”

He married Bluma (Regina), the daughter of Reb Dovid Aryeh Leib Reich, a chazzan in the town of Presov, Slovakia. The Borgenicht’s immigrated to America as a young man of June 16, 1889, settling in a tenement on Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. 

To pay rent on their tiny tenement room, Louis tramped all day through cold streets, by turns selling herrings, then towels, tablecloths, notebooks, bananas, socks, and dishes, but then began cutting and stitching girls’ aprons by hand, working fifteen hours a day, and slowly building up a business in manufacturing clothing. This venture would morph into a multi-million-dollar company, with massive manufacturing plants in multiple states. 

In the New York Daily News, writing about the Happiest Man, an articles notes that “Louis Borgenicht might be said to have started the ready-made dress business in New York City… Louis Borgenicht was a happy man because he loved work and life and because he prized her personal integrity. He made and lost several fortunes, but he was always able to look his fellow man in the eye…” 

Reb Leibish was so wealthy, that he was driven around in style by a chauffeur. We know this, because, in 1913, he was sued by a young man whom the driver had struck. The judge sought to hold Mr. Borgenicht personally liable for damages, even though he was not driving the vehicle. 

Soon, they moved to Boro Park, where they lived in a home of 24 rooms at 1475 52nd Street. “The grounds were so large that the children would make an ice-skating rink and skate during the winter,” recalled a daughter of Mr. Borgenicht. She further recalled that they would take in many needy people. “My father never permitted our servants to serve these people, but insisted that his children do so. He was likewise involved in Machzikei Talmud Torah of Boro Park, which had been founded a short time before he arrived in the neighborhood.  

Another aspect of his business, which was later called Korenreich and Borgenicht, was the fact that it was closed on Shabbos, and proudly advertised to girls who were seeking Shomer Shabbos work as seamstresses. 

Supporting Torah

Around the year 1924, a fund called Chevras Tomchei Torah was established in New York City to help fund Yeshivos of Hungary, so that Torah would not be forgotten in that country (it would endure for decades, and would still continue to fund Yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel which were led by Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbonim of Hungarian extraction). 

Its founder was Rav Dr. Hillel Hakohen Klein of Harlem who was of Hungarian origin, and the president was none other than our own Louis Borgenicht. Evidence of his association with Rav Klein—in addition to numerous documents from Tomchei Torah—comes from a 1919 testimonial dinner in the latter’s honor at Ohav Tzedek of Harlem (where Yossele Rosenblatt served as chazzan), which L. Borgenicht had a hand organizing. 

Following the passing of Rav Klein, the organization distributed tzedakah pushkes to Jewish homes around the United States—something that did not sit well with the leaders of Kollel Shomrei Hachomos, the tzedakah that gathered funds from Hungarian Jews for the welfare of their brethren in Eretz Yisroel, who feared that it would diminish donations to their organizations.  

Reb Leibish was niftar on the second day of Cheshvan of the year 1942, and was interred in a prominent place on Union Field Cemetery, alongside many of the Rabbonim with whom he had worked to better the lot of his brethren abroad and in Boro Park of yesteryear.