Memory Lane: Yeshiva Ohel Yaakov Novaradok

The presence of Novaradok in Boro Park predates WWII and the postwar influx of Holocaust survivors. It traces it time to when Rav Avrohom Jofen—a son-in-law of Rav Yosef Yozel Horowitz, the Alter of Novardok—settled here during the early years of the war, and transplanted his Yeshiva Beis Yosef Novaradok in a home on 49th Street. 

His illustrious talmidim, pillars of the Novaradoker Yeshiva, founded an elementary yeshiva in Boro Park. around the year 1958, and in the years of its existence it implanted a spirit of Torah and mussar on a high level into the next generation. 

Torah and Mussar  

The Yeshiva was founded by two of the fiery ba’alei mussar from the yeshiva, namely Rav Shloime Figa (who has been profiled here in the past) and Rav Chaim Mordechai Weinkrantz (a holy personality who merits an article of his own). 

“His partners in this undertaking were his chaverim at the Novaradoker Yeshiva, Hago’on Rav Chaim Mordechai Weinkrantz, who was an exceptional pedagogue and mechanech (he was later a menahel in Beis Yaakov of Boro Park) and Rav Yechiel Michel Schwartz who likewise possessed an ability to relate to the youth. 

“In 1958, they founded Talmud Torah Ohel Yaakov in Boro Park, a locale that had a sizable population of frum families. The yeshiva was named for Rav Yisroel Yaakov Lubchansky, a son-in-law of the Alter of Novaradok and a mashgiach in Yeshiva Ohel Torah-Baranovitch. The Talmud Torah would stand for more than twenty years, and there learned the children of the most illustrious Torah families in Brooklyn. 

“Hundreds of Bnei Torah emerged and grew within the yeshiva where their first influences were implanted into their hearts in the elevated and unique atmosphere of Ohel Yaakov—a place that brought together Torah and mussar with a special emphasis on mesorah.” 

A Branch of Merkaz Beis Yosef 

In the beginning, the yeshiva was located on the upper level of Yeshiva Beis Yosef on 49th Street, and Rav Shloime Figa was in charge of both the ruchniyus as well as the gashmiyus of the yeshiva. He was the maggid shiur of the most senior group, which was around bar mitzvah age. According to Rav Mordechai Jofen, shlit”a, a grandson of Rav Avrohom and the current Rosh Yeshiva in Beis Yosef, “Rav Shloime was an outstanding rebbi, teaching us gemoro with great iyun, daf after daf.” 

“But the chiddush of Rav Shloime’s instruction to his talmidim were his shiurim in sifrei mussar. He taught these shiurim in the foundational mussar texts with great emotion, igniting a fire in the hearts of the young talmidim, connecting them with the spirit of mussar for life. This was a great chiddush… and Rav Shloime was a pioneer in this, for there was no one teaching mussar to such young students,” continues the narrative in Chochmas Shloime. “But for these old Novaradokers, this was a primary objective; to illuminate with the light of mussar¸ and to fan its flames.” 

In those early days, transportation for the talmidim to yeshiva became an issue, something that stood to prevent the yeshiva from continuing… But Novaradokers were taught never to allow anything to stand in the way of their avodas Hashem. So, Rav Shloime learned to drive a bus, and acquired a license, and with his pashtus and temimus, began transporting the talmidim to the yeshiva with his own two hands. 

Growth 

As the yeshiva grew, it needed to move out of the original location, and a new place was found in a shul at 6322 21st Avenue in Bensonhurst. "There was a side yard where we played marbles and a backyard where we played punchball," Rabbi Yerachmiel Milstein shared. "It was near the train tracks, and many a ball was lost when it went over the fence and could not be retrieved."

As the talmidim grew older, many of them reached Mesivta age, and a high school was opened for them, at first on the upper level of Yeshiva Beis Yosef.  

Eventually, a building was purchased at 1480 43rd Street (the site of the Belzer shtiebel for many years, up to present day), and this is where the yeshiva continued to thrive all the way to the early 1970’s, when it closed its doors permanently. 

But the mesirus nefesh of the individuals who established and led the yeshiva—Yidden with souls ignited and animated by the fire of Novaradoker mussar—continues to live on in the hearts of hundreds of talmidim who have gone on to live lives of Torah and yiras Shomayim thanks to a venerated institution in Boro Park of yore.