RABBI SHRAGA FEIVEL MENDLOWITZ
1886-1948
Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, visionary, teacher and leader, single-handedly revolutionized American Orthodox Jewish life through the establishment of Jewish day schools, Jewish high schools, Torah day camps and post graduate yeshiva studies throughout the United States.
Born in 1886 in the Hungarian town, Viillig, into a family of Sanzer Chassidim, he was known as an ilui – a student genius. From the age of nine, he studied with the three brightest minds of Hungary at the time – Rabbi Moshe Greenwald, the Chuster Rav, author of Arugas Habosem; Rabbi Samuel Rosenberg the Unsdorfer Rav, author of Beer Shmuel; and Rabbi Simcha Bunim Schreiber, the Pressburger Rav, author of Shevet Sofer. At the age of 17 he received smicha (rabbinical ordination) and at 22 married the daughter of his stepmother (his own mother had passed away when he was 12 years old).
Avoiding the Hungarian army, he immigrated to the United States in 1913 without his family
(they joined him in 1920). Rabbi Mendlowitz began his new life teaching in various Jewish Talmud Torahs in Scranton, Bridgeport and New York. He briefly worked as a ritual slaughterer (which he hated) and ran an ice cream shop in New York.
In 1922, he joined the staff of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn. Shortly thereafter he was appointed principal and was instrumental in its development from a small institution of 20 students to a world-renowned yeshiva with over 2,000 pupils. Rabbi Mendlowitz made a strong impression on both students and colleagues alike due to his vast knowledge and his unique personality. One of his first changes was his insistence that yeshiva board members attend Torah classes twice weekly to improve their Torah appreciation.
Through the force of his personality, he convinced the parents of his 8th grade students to stay in yeshiva for just one more year. This was the beginning of the first Yeshiva high school in America.– Mesifta Torah Vodaas, which officially opened in 1927.
Rabbi Mendelowitz or Mr Mendelowitz, as he liked to be called, was acutely aware of Jewish history and central Torah was to Jewish survival. He reasoned that while so many Jews were being distracted and divorced from their Judaism, Torah Vodaas should concentrate and specialize in producing productive graduates, and community leaders, whose main focus and love in life would be Torah. Mr. Mendelowitz concentrated on Torah education alone, uniquely combining the rigors of Lithuanian Talmud and Torah learning with the spiritual and joyful approach of Chassidus.