Memory Lane: Rav Shlomo Hakohen Gliksman

On a quiet corner of Boro Park, on Clara Street, stands a charming shul called Linas Hatzedek which holds its own share of Boro Park history, including multiple personalities and Rabbonim who served the congregation. 

It is one of these Rabbonim— a brilliant, fearless, and upstanding Talmid Chacham who was fluent in German, Russian, Hebrew, Polish, Yiddish, French, and English—whom we profile today.  

Zagórów

Rav Shlomo Gliksman was born in 1899 in the central-Polish town of Zagórów, near Kalisz to his parents who were Gerer chassidim. His father was named Reb Shmuel Tzvi. Not much is known about his early childhood, but he learned for three years in the yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim in Radin. During this time, Rav Naftoli Tropp was the Rosh Yeshiva there, and Shlomo received semicha before departing the yeshiva. 

In a letter of approbation from Rav Moshe Soloveitchik in 1939, while already in America, Rav Soloveitchik writes about Rav Gliksman’s years spent “diligently learning days and nights between the walls of the yeshiva… and when he was in Berlin, Germany, his home was open to all.”  

In 1927, he received an endorsement from Rav Chaim Heller who was then the leader of Beis Medrash haElyon in Berlin, attesting to his broad knowledge and his abilities to lead.  

Suing Julius Streicher 

In Danzig he also served as an attorney to many high-ranking Germans, including the wife of Herman Göring, ym”sh. But more importantly, he assisted his Jewish brethren to defend themselves against a German government that was tightening its news around their necks through onerous and discriminatory laws—a work that entailed quite a bit of mesirus nefesh. 

In 1934, while in Danzig, Rav Gliksman served as the rov of Congregation Ohel Yitzchok, and it was there that he originally penned his book on the lies that undergird anti-Semitism which was rearing its ugly head at the time.  

Around 1939, he came to America and settled in Boro Park, serving as the Rav of Linas Hatzedek in Boro Park. 

The English version of his work Shkorim in der Anti-Semitisher Literatur, Lies in the Anti-Semitic Literature, was named My Lawsuit Against Julius Streicher. In the preface he writes that after the earlier publication of the book in its original German, he was asked by Christian people from various countries about the psychology of the anti-Semite. 

“My answer at the time was based more on theory than on fact, because the world war which reflects the true face of anti-Semitism, more and more each day, started five years later. Now, in the second year of the war, with the daily increase of anti-Semitic activity by totalitarian governments, I am able to base my answer on well-known facts. This is in answer to those inquiries. Anti-Semitism is not an ideological concept, but really a chronic disease which pits the strong against the weak and helpless, even though the victim be an infant.”   

Chicago and Detroit

From Boro Park, the family moved to Chicago, and it was there that Rav Shlomo wrote The Jew in a New World, about the role of Jews in the post-Holocaust world, and to foster understanding of the Jewish People. 

After about one-and-a-half years in Chicago, Rav Gliksman moved to Detroit and worked as an executive director of the Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin. He also gave an aggadah shiur in the Detroit yeshiva while he was fundraising. Rav Glicksman then opened an office in downtown Detroit with the help of the Polish-Jewish Federation.  He provided affidavits for European Jews to come to the USA.  He assisted a few thousand people to receive visas.

At the age of only 51, following a meeting with his friend Reb Elimelech Lifshitz, who lived downstairs, he felt unwell. He suffered a heart attack and was niftar shortly thereafter. 

His Levaya brought out hundreds of Detroit residents to the Beis Yehuda Shul, the Poilishe Shul, and the large crowd accompanied Rav Gliksman to his resting place on the Beis Yehuda Cemetery where he was laid to rest following a lifetime of advocating for his fellow Yidden in word and in deed.