Memory Lane: Rav Reuven Leibowitz

Readers may recall that in our story on Rav Tuvia Goldtstein, we noted that in the 1960’s and 70’s, Yeshiva Emek Halacha was located in the Beth Israel Shul at 1763 63rd street. From the New York City records, we learn that: “Beth Israel Talmud Torah, House of Israel, Elementary Religious School. Organized (1924) as Congregation Beth Israel Talmud Torah and Sheltering of Orphans. First Rabbi: Leibowitz. Present Rabbi: M. Rokeach, 1939+” 

Who was the aforementioned Rabbi Leibowitz? 

It turns out that Rav Leibowitz left behind quite a family of Shomrei Torah umitzvos, and we turned to them in an effort to learn more about his life. “He was born (1874) in the Kovno region,” recalls a granddaughter who was two years old at the time of his untimely passing. 

Hearing Yossele

After some time in the Lower East Side, the family went to Harlem. His daughter recalled going to daven in Ohab Zedek, where the legendary Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt would daven. 

By 1910, they were in Brooklyn—2161 64th Street— and we know that in 1924, his work at Beth Israel Talmud Torah began. “The feeling in the family had always been that a Rabbi’s salary was insufficient to support a family (the Leibowitz’s had eight children, twins among them) and so they opened a dairy shop, where the Rov and Rebbetzin worked. This arrangement turned out not to be very profitable, since the rov would always be overly generous with the cheese that he doled out, and he would give too much away to the poor. 

Another side vocation that he engaged in was his work as an itinerant maggid, as we will learn below. As we have noted, Rav Leibowitz passed away at the untimely age of 64, in the year 1939. This was an extremely sudden event; he sat down in a chair, and suffered a heart attack. 

Rav Eidelsohn’s Hesped

Rav Yehuda Eidel Eidelson was a famous Rov in Denver and Detroit and elsewhere. In his Sefer Nachlas Yehuda, he publishes his hesped on Rav Leibowitz, which gives us valuable insight into his life. 

“The niftar would give over words of mussar, words that spewed fire… rabim heishiv me’avon, he pulled many away from sin. He was endowed with a learned tongue, a warm heart, and great talent. His words emanated from a pure source, and found their way to the hearts of his brethren. He never insulted his listeners, rather with sweet words… he would raise them up; ‘sweet Yidden, holy Yidden,’ he would intone.

Wherever he went, he would fill entire Shuls from wall to wall. I recall when I was in Denver in 1913, and I traveled to Chicago to garner support for the Sanitarium (this was a Jewish institution for those suffering from lung disease), and I met the niftar there. With his phenomenal drashos, he brought to mind the famed maggidim of the previous generation; the Maggid of Kelm, Rav Yisroel Minsker, Rav Chaim Rumshishker, Rav Simcha Kahana, and others. 

“He would awaken the hearts of his listeners, imploring his brethren to mend their ways and to strengthen everything that is holy and precious; to improve their middos, and to purify the neshama and the heart, and to raise the spirit… he would elicit tears from his listeners. A ma’ariv after his derosho was reminiscent to ma’ariv on Yom Kippur night after Kol Nidrei. 

“The niftar was a remnant from a lost breed of magidim. I knew him for twenty five years, and I can attest to his greatness. 

Rav Reuven did not have a prior heart condition, and was otherwise healthy. But according to the family, he was extremely perturbed by the oncoming WWII, and worried greatly for the fate of his family. Following the levaya, he was interred in Beth David Cemetery, following half a century of inspiring his fellow Yidden, with three decades as a rov in Boro Park of yesteryear.