Memory Lane: Rav Mendel Guzik

Rav Mendel Guzik was the founder of the Vaad Harabanim of New York, an organizing body that contributed much to Jewish life in New York.

He was born in Zhelin in 1862, and learned by the gedolim of his generation. In the year 1880, he married Feiga, the daughter of a wealthy individual from Szreńsk, near his hometown of Zhelin. Supported by his father in law, he continued to delve into Shas and Poskim, and he became known as the ‘iluy of Szreńsk.’ He refused offers of Rabbonus, and instead began to dabble in business, while dedicating most of his time to learning. Tragedy hit for the second time, when his young wife passed away, leaving no children behind. He married her younger sister, and continued learning, while investing in his business ventures, in which he began to see success. The couple moved to the nearby Polish town of Mława, where Rav Mendel became an address for Rabbonim and businesspeople alike in search of wise counsel.

In 1897, the family moved to Antwerp, where Rav Mendel invested in the burgeoning diamond industry. He soon became known to the Rabbonim of the town, becoming involved in communal matters. From Antwerp, he sent a teshuva to the Avnei Nezer of Sochachow, in his native Poland, regarding the eiruv, and other Torah matters relating to the community in Antwerp. Avenei Nezer 1: 293 is indeed addressed to him, though only referencing the name of the city. 

In 1902, Rav Guzik came to New York for business, but was unsuccessful. To try and recover his losses, he acquiesced to the pleas of his friend Rav Yehoshua Siegel— also of Polish origin, a descendant of Rav Akivah Eiger, and one of the America’s most prominent Rabbonim on the Lower East Side—to accept the Rabbonus of Poughkeepsie, New York. 

Vaad Harabanim of New York

After a number of years in upstate New York, Rav Guzik was asked to take the helm of the Makower Congregation on the Lower East Side, through which he became a leader of the Polish Jews in America, which he did in 1909. In 1920, the family moved to Brooklyn. 

In 1925, he was one of the small delegation to Washington—which included New York’s most prominent Rabbonim, such as Rav Avrohom Aaron Yudlewitz, Rav Velvele Margolies, and Rav Hirsch Dachowitz of Brownsville—to petition President Coolidge to relax immigration quotas in the aftermath of WWI.  

Around 1927, he founded Vaad Harabanim of New York. His impetus for doing so can be gleaned from an address at an early conference of this organization, as transcribed by Der Moment: “The lowly state of Rabbonim of in New York... Rabbi Mendel Guzik demonstrated that Shuls and temples were now searching exclusively for English-speaking Rabbonim. In New York there are currently dozens of truly learned Rabbonim who cannot acquire a Rabbinic position. Everyone complained about the many elderly rabbonim who were jobless.” 

The conferences of the Vaad Harabanim—which had Rav Mendel at its helm until his passing in 1943—regularly drew, and included in its ranks, the most prominent Rabbonim. The dilemmas they addressed covered every area of Jewish life, which they tried to support and bolster.

In 1935, Rav Mendel published a sefer, Minchas Yehuda, with hadranim and derushim on every masechta in Shas. In it we see evidence of his vast Torah knowledge, and his deep erudition. Aside from his communal involvement, he spent all his days learning—until his petirah on 17 Tishrei of 1943, and was interred on Mt. Zion Cemetery, following a lifetime of dedication to Torah and Yiddishkeit.