Memory Lane: Rav Mendel Silverstein

In the Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim section in Beth David Cemetery lies an interesting headstone which reads: Rav Yehoshua Menachem Silverstein… “[he was a] misnaged from Stavisk and Telz and became a chossid of Belz.

Who was Rabbi Silverstein, and what is his story? Rabbi Silverstein was one of the early Rabbonim of Ohel Abraham Mishkan Joseph, located at 4907 18th Avenue, which was founded about a century ago. This is his story. 

Stavisk 

Yehoshua Menachem was born to his father in the town of Szczucin – a town situated in southern Poland. It lies approximately 16 kilometers (10 mi) north-east of Dąbrowa Tarnowska, 30 km (19 mi) north of Tarnów and 85 km (53 mi) east of the regional capital Kraków—in the year 1876. 

His father, Reb Shraga Silverstein, was a carpenter by trade, and a truly pious man. His mother was a tzadekes who was considered the “mother” of all the yeshiva students in Szczucin. 

After learning in the cheder in town, he headed north to the great yeshiva in Telz, and later in the yeshiva of Novaradok.  

He married Necha Leibik, the daughter of a prominent family in Stavisk, a city that is located near Biyalistok, Poland. The couple settled in Stavisk following the wedding, and after a while, Reb Yehoshua Menachem went into business. 

He tried a few trades, without much success—and ultimately went into the logging industry together with two men from the city named Rubenstein and Williamowsky. It was in this venture that he saw success, and the Silverstein’s were considered among the wealthy families in the town. 

Rabbi Baruch Silverstein, a son of Rav Yehoshua Menachem, recalled that the family would spend a number of weeks on vacation in a German resort town every summer, and they would also visit the big city of Warsaw a few times a year. “Retuning from the big city, they would excitedly recount their experiences,” he remembered. 

He also recalled that his father was an ardent Zionist who would often hold debates with opponents of the movement. “I recall the beautiful celebration that my father organized upon the opening of the Hebrew University in the year 1925 together with Reb Shabsi Friedman (Rav Shepsel Friedman, as he was known, was a legendary residents of Stavisk, and like Reb Mendel, also later a resident of Boro Park, where he had a shul at 2032 62nd street). 

Rav Yehoshua Mendel was one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Stavisk, and represented the community to the local government. He also assisted the local president and judge in their work. 

Ohel Abraham 

The Silverstein’s came to America in 1929, and settled at 18 East 105th Street in Harlem. It is unclear how long they remained there. But we know that by 1935, they were in Boro Park, and settled at 1119 43rd Street.

Ohel Abraham Mishkan Joseph was founded in 1926, and the very first known Rabbi of this congregation was Rabbi Yehoshua Menachem Silverstein, who served the congregation from 1935 until at least 1937. On the 14th of February of that year, he was the officiating Rabbi at the wedding of his daughter Jean to Aaron Lichtenstein, and signs his ‘official station’ as Rabbi at 4907 18th Avenue. The aforementioned wedding took place at the Park Mansion, 4424 16th Avenue (later known as the “Georgie’s Building”). Aaron Lichtenstein was an orthodox man who served as the shamos of a congregation in Bensonhurst. 

His World War II draft registration card tells us that, during that time (1942), he was employed at “Yeshiva College, Amsterdam Avenue & 186th Street.”

During his later years in Boro Park, Rav Mendel did not hold a rabbinic post, but davened in a Belzer Shtiebel, hence the reading on his matzeiva “turned into a chossid of Belz.” It is unclear to what extent went his allegiance to the Belzer chassidus.  

Rebbetzin Necha Silverstein was niftar in the year 1963, and Rav Mendel left this world on the 8th of Marchehvan of the year 1969, following close to forty years in Boro Park of yore.