Elazar Simcha Wasserman (1898 - October 29, 1992) was an

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

rabbi and

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

. Born in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, he was sent before World War II to the United States by his father, Rabbi

Elchonon Wasserman Elchonon Bunim Wasserman ( he, אלחנן בונים וסרמן; 18746 July 1941) was a prominent rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) in prewar Europe. He was one of the closest students of Yisrael Meir Kagan (the Chofetz Chaim) and a noted Talmid Chac ...

, to improve the level of Jewish education there. He established

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

s in the United States and Israel. He was described as "a pioneer educator".

Early life and family

Elazar Simcha Wasserman was born in the

, the eldest of the three sons born to

and his wife Michla. He was a nephew of Rabbi

Chaim Ozer Grodzensky Chaim Ozer Grodzinski ( he, חיים עוזר גראדזענסקי; August 24, 1863 – August 9, 1940) was a ''Av beis din'' (rabbinical chief justice), ''posek'' (halakhic authority), and Talmudic scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania in the late 19th a ...

. He married Feiga Rachel, the daughter of Rabbi Meir Abowitz, Rav of Novordok, and his wife Chana. Except for him and his brother David, all his birth family died during World War II. He and his wife, who outlived him, had no children.

Career

Although most of his career was in the United States, Wasserman established his first rabbinical seminary in Strasbourg in 1933. During the 1940s Wasserman strengthened

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Yeshiva Beth Yehudah is a religious Jewish day school consisting of two campuses at Southfield and Oak Park, Michigan, which serves boys (Southfield, grades 1–8) and girls (Oak Park, pre-K–12). The school's curriculum is a blend of traditio ...

and served as dean. It had been founded in 1914 as a

Talmud Torah Talmud Torah ( he, תלמוד תורה, lit. 'Study of the Torah') schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of religious school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary educat ...

and renamed as a yeshiva in 1925.

Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon

Two of the schools founded by Wasserman were named Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon, one in the United States, the other in Israel. The school in Los Angeles included elementary, secondary, college, and post-graduate classes, with some students "from as far as Arizona and Colorado". Ten of the initial students at the college and post-graduate school were sent from

Yeshiva Torah Vodaas Yeshiva Torah Vodaas (or Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Vodaath or Yeshiva Torah Vodaath or Torah Vodaath Rabbinical Seminary ) is a ''yeshiva'' in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. History The yeshiva was conceived in 1917 and for ...

, handpicked by Rabbi

Gedalia Schorr Gedalyahu HaLevi Schorr (27 November 1910 – 7 July 1979),http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tworld/rschorr.html also known as Gedalia Schorr, was a prominent rabbi and rosh yeshiva. He was regarded as the "first American Gadol" (Torah ...

. This was well before the school attained 300 students.

Outreach

Among the keywords describing Wasserman's methodology are patience and simplicity: "Whatever is within my ability to fulfill I do, and whatever I can’t accomplish I don’t worry about." In 1970 he wrote an article for ''

The Jewish Observer ''The Jewish Observer'' was an American Orthodox Jewish magazine published by the Agudath Israel of America, from 1963 until 2009. It was put on "hiatus" in 2009, with plans to restart once the finances of the magazine, affected by the economic c ...

'' titled "Memorandum To: Concerned individuals From: Rabbi Simcha Wasserman Re: Reaching out" in which he encourages more outreach "to the entire Jewish community," adding that "Unless the public is Torah educated, the Yeshiva contributor will soon be supplanted by the philanthropist whose list of priorities does not even include Yeshivos." He was not a fan of "new and improved" when it came to Judaism: "... the plastic potato. It looked like a potato, smelled like a potato, even tasted like a potato .. the only significant difference .. was that when you planted a plastic potato, it didn’t grow, it couldn’t reproduce, it was sterile."

Works

While in Israel he facilitated the reprinting of his father's works; some of his own writings were printed in a booklet, ''Simchat Elazar''.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wasserman, Simcha 1899 births 1992 deaths American Orthodox rabbis Israeli rabbis 20th-century American rabbis