Jerusalem – An Icon, A Powerhouse and An Inspiration: Remembering Reb Meir Schuster Zt’l

Jerusalem –  Jews worldwide are mourning the loss of Reb Meir Schuster, zt’l, a legendary fixture at the Kosel who devoted almost forty years of his life to introducing Jews of all stripes to the beauty of their Jewish heritage.  R’ Schuster, who suffered from Lewy Body disease, a degenerative incurable neurological disorder, passed away on Monday in Jerusalem at age 71.  As many as tens of thousands of baalei teshuva credit R’ Schuster with their return to religious observance.

Rabbi Meir Tzvi Schuster was born to Holocaust survivors Morris and Mary Schuster in Milwaukee on January 22^nd, 1943.  A public school student, the young Meir’s main connection to religious observance was his grandmother, until he began attending an afternoon Hebrew school at age 11, run by Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski.

“I knew Meir before his Bar Mitzvah,” Rabbi Twerski told VIN News.  “He learned for his Bar Mitzvah in my father’s shul.  He was a very sweet, but a very withdrawn child.  If anybody had told me at that time that he would be the one to fill the baal teshuva yeshivos, I would have said they were crazy.”

Despite his reserved nature, Rabbi Twerski recalled that the young  Meir possessed a special charm which became the basis for his unbelievable success in the kiruv world.

“Hashem gave him unbelievable cheyn and the people he would meet at the Kosel would follow him like the Pied Piper,” said Rabbi Twerski.  “I knew him as Stanley and whenever I would go to the Kosel and would see him from a distance I would call out ‘Hey, Stanley!’ and he knew it was me.  Whenever I was at the Kosel, he would be there, too.”

In retrospect, Rabbi Twerski said that R’ Schuster actually experienced the first glimmers of his future early in life.

“Meir used to come to me before his Bar Mitzvah and tell me how Hashem spoke to him,” said Rabbi Twerski.  “I wasn’t a psychiatrist then but if a kid would tell me now that he hears voices I would say there was something wrong.  I didn’t see anything wrong then so I just set it aside, but now I believe it is true.  I can only conclude that he was some kind of special tzaddik.”

The young Meir went on to study at Beis Medrash L’Torah in Skokie in 1958, moving on to Baltimore’s Ner Israel Rabbinical College just two years later, where he would wake up the other bochurim each morning and spend his entire Shabbos learning in the Beis Medrash.

Los Angeles resident Rabbi Avi Stewart, a Ner Israel alumnus, recalls that even years later, the yeshiva’s rabbeim still spoke fondly of R’ Schuster’s time at the yeshiva.

“We heard over stories about how he used to have a taanis dibbur every Shabbos when he was a bochur and how he would give out cookies to those in the beis medrash at 1 or 2 AM on Friday nights,” said Rabbi Stewart.

R’ Schuster married his wife, Esther Garfinkle of Monticello, New York in 1967 and they traveled to Israel in March 1968 to spend a year immersed in learning.   It soon became readily apparent that one year in Israel was nowhere near enough for the young couple, who settled permanently in the Ezras Torah section of Jerusalem.

R’ Schuster’s metamorphosis from an introverted, quiet individual to the man who would approach total strangers at the Kosel and fan the light of Yiddishkeit that burned deep inside them took place shortly after his arrival in Israel.  On a trip to the Kosel with an old yeshiva friend, Chaim Kass, the two observed a young man with a backpack, who was clearly moved by his visit to the holy site.  Wanting to capitalize on what could be a once in a lifetime moment, Rabbi Kass approached the young man and asked him if he was interested in learning more about Judaism.  Encouraged by his positive reply, the two returned daily and in just a few weeks, R’ Schuster began reaching out on his own to both men and women who came to the Kosel and over a span of decades he singlehandedly brought tens of thousands back to Yiddishkeit.

Author Bracha Goetz found her life transformed in 1978 after meeting up with R’ Schuster in 1978. Having studied at Harvard  University, the now Mrs. Goetz was volunteering at Hadassah Hospital’s Oncology ward after her first year of medical school. Meeting with R’ Schuster at the Kosel, Mrs. Goetz soon found herself in Ohr Somayach women’s program, fulfilling her secret desire to better understand the purpose of life.

“Reb Meir is the proof of what one human being is capable of doing,” said Mrs. Goetz. “He was by nature a shy type of person, but he saw there was an important job to be done, and so he did it, day in, day out, for decades.  Without any fanfare, in the humblest way possible, he dedicated his life to showing thousands of us, one by one, why Judaism was worth preserving.  The words from his pure heart entered our hearts, and a great love of Judaism became kindled in countless emanating sparks.”

Rabbi Aryeh Goetz, who also became observant thanks to R’ Schuster, echoed his wife’s sentiments.

“You just thought he was like a regular person,” noted Rabbi Goetz.  “He was very approachable and he accepted everybody wherever they were at, but he never gave up.  Oh my gosh, he never gave up.  It was a trait that he personified for us all and everyone can learn from that.”

Rabbi Goetz was known as Larry in 1976 when R’ Schuster first tapped him on the shoulder, asking him if he had the time, a question that resulted in him spending just a single day at Ohr Somayach.

“I was at the Wall and I saw people praying and figured I might as well say a prayer, too.  I prayed for some answers,” said Rabbi Goetz.  “I got more answers than I ever knew there were questions for.”

R’ Schuster was known for personally escorting his new friends to whatever Torah institution he felt best suited them.

“He never just sent anyone anywhere.  He took you somewhere and would introduce you to people and you felt you could trust him.  I had to go back to my kibbutz program, but a month later I was back in Jerusalem.”

At the advice of a friend, the then Larry Goetz contacted Rabbi Noach Weinberg, taking the next step on his journey to religious observance.

“The Weinbergs invited me to come to Aish Hatorah and I was open to learning about Judiasm, but it all started with Reb Meir Schuster,” mused Rabbi Goetz.

Friday nights were prime time for R’ Schuster as he would approach visitors to the Kosel and offer them the opportunity to enjoy an authentic Shabbos meal.  Leaving the Kosel, often accompanied an entourage of dozens, R’ Schuster would drop people off at various hosts who were happy to share their Shabbos with visitors.  The Goetz home was one of the many stops on R’ Schuster’s Friday night route.

“We lived in Geula and he would bring people to our house,” said Rabbi Goetz.  “We once had a Jewish lady with her Eskimo boyfriend, which was interesting.  Having those Friday night guests had a tremendous impact on our own lives as we would have the experience of showing people what Shabbos is, what the Torah is and we would feel the excitement of the transformational effect of sharing Shabbos or the Torah with someone who was open to the experience.  It was the most exciting time of our lives.”

Attorney Michael Koplen was another person who was approached by R’ Schuster at the Kosel.

“I met Rabbi Schuster at the Kotel in 1975,” said Koplen.  “He was fishing for souls, engaged me in conversation and arranged for a Shabbos dinner for a friend and me.  I did not make that particular dinner but I vividly remember my encounter with Rabbi Schuster.  He was soft spoken and so genuine. You could tell he really cared and it made a life-long impression on me.  When one considers all the thousands of people one meets in a lifetime for short conversations and how many are forgotten, the fact that my memory of Rabbi Schuster stands out so vividly means a lot.  He was a pure soul and one sensed that purity immediately upon meeting him.”

It was a 1977 meeting with R’ Schuster that forever changed the life of author Shimon Apisdorf.

“Reb Meir is the reason why I am frum and have a frum family today,” said Apisdorf.  “I came to Israel for a year of college and was staying at a youth hostel in Jerusalem where I met some other kids who weren’t Jewish.  I  had been to Israel before and I became the official tour guide for the day.”

Taking his friends the Old City, Apisdorf and his friends found themselves at the Kosel, where he was approached by R’ Schuster.

“He wanted to take me to a Shabbos meal but I told him I was with friends.  He asked me if they were Jewish and when I told  him that they weren’t he told me to just go with him.  I told him it wasn’t nice to just leave them but he insisted that I do exactly that and we got into a big argument.  I was a liberal college kid and I ended up shouting at him until finally he said, ‘come back tomorrow and I will take you to a class.’”

The class was 48 Ways to Wisdom, given by R’ Noach Weinberg.

“I went to one and that got the ball rolling for me,” said Apisdorf.

In time, Apisdorf found himself joining R’ Schuster, helping him deliver people to the Jerusalem homes where they would enjoy what was possibly their first-ever Shabbos meal.

“Friday night he would collect ten, twenty, sixty or seventy people at the Kotel and just drop them off at various people’s houses,” recalled Apisodorf.  “I spent many Friday nights at R’ Schuster’s home, sometimes sleeping there, and seeing him up close and personal, I can tell you that devotion isn’t even a proper word to describe Reb Meir.  The entirety of his being was completely focused on his mission.  Nothing else existed.  Nothing got in his way, stopped him, deterred him, got him down or  slowed him down.  He just went and went and went.  The next person, the next day, day after day, year after year.  He just never stopped.”

As a father raising a family of his own, Apisdorf would tell his children about his encounters with R’ Schuster.

“I would tell my children that I don’t know if I ever met one of the lamed vav tzadikim, but if I did, I am sure it was Reb Meir Schuster.  When he would come to fundraise in our home town of Baltimore, I would take them to see him and they would say, ‘Wow, Abba is taking us to meet the lamed vav tzaddik who he met.’  That was what I would tell my kids about Reb Meir.’”

According to Apisdorf, R’ Schuster’s davening was nothing short of remarkable.

“His tefilla was not to be believed,” said Apisdorf.  “It was an intense personal conversation with Hakadosh Baruch Hu and basically, he was often yelling at Hashem and demanding things from Hashem.  There is no question that he was demonstratively engaged in an intense personal interaction.  He was completely involved in the relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu and everything he did was an outgrowth of that.”

What made R’ Schuster’s efforts so monumental was that while today there are numerous kiruv programs in operation, things were far different just a few decades ago.

“From the early 70’s to the mid 80’s, before there were so many sophisticated outreach programs, a huge percentage of the people who ended up coming through Ohr Somayach, Aish Hatorah, Neve Yerushalayim, D’var Yerushalayim and Diaspora Yeshiva, the early pillars of the kiruv movement, came because of Reb Meir,” said Apisdorf.  “He had no affiliation to any one place.  He brought people to the place he thought best suited their needs.”

Dovid Winiarz, president of Survival Through Education, saw R’ Schuster as a both a source of inspiration and a personal role model.

“I can tell you that Reb Meir always loomed larger than life and was the most amateur professional the kiruv world has ever known,” said Winiarz.  “I say amateur because he just did what ‘regular people’ can do.  I say professional because he made it his business to do it.”

R’ Schuster founded Heritage Hostel, a youth hostel for Jewish young adults in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in 1985, providing tens of thousands of unaffiliated Jews free, subsidized lodging, with separate buildings for men and women.  Also available, for those who choose to participate, are introductory classes to Judaism and programs for Shabbos and yomim tovim, as well as free internet, international phone lines, laundry service and tours.

Despite being diagnosed with Lewy Body disease six years ago,  R’ Schuster continued his outreach efforts for as long as possible, hoping to catch just one more neshama, to change just one more life.  Even as R’ Schuster continued to deteriorate physically, his larger than life spirit seemed indomitable.

“We went to see Reb Meir about two and a half years ago when he was already very sick,” said Apisdorf.  “We were warned ahead of time that he was practically vegetative and in a non communicative state.  We went into him and it was a terrible, terrible sight.  I held his hand and told him who I was and he squeezed  my hand.  I said ‘Reb Meir, I want to tell you about my children,’ and he squeezed my hand again.    I told him how much R’ Noach Weinberg had loved him and he squeezed my hand another time.  I told Reb Meir that I knew that he had not stopped working for klal yisroel, that I knew he was just doing a different kind of work now and that he would be working for all of us from a higher place.  I said, ‘Reb Meir, we need you to be working for us, talking to Hakadosh Baruch Hu from a higher place,’ and he squeezed my hand one last time.  I had been told that he wasn’t there anymore, but it was clear that that was not the case.”

Seattle resident Joe Reback founded the website RebMeirSchuster.org in order to raise money for R’ Schuster’s long term care and to keep his many disciples informed of his condition.  The site is filled with personal recollections submitted by people whose lives were forever altered by R’ Schuster.

“Through all the years of my spiritual journey, from my arrival at the Kotel in 1983 as a scruffy 20 something loaded down with a backpack on my way to Africa, to the present day where I am privileged to serve as president of a beautiful Chassidishe shul here in Seattle, no one has cared more passionately about my neshama than Reb Meir Schuster, and I am forever indebted to him.”

Reback had the opportunity to see R’ Schuster one last time, albeit from a distance of thousands of miles.

“ My daughter just visited with Reb Meir a few weeks ago where she provided me with the z’chut of speaking to the Rav via a video connection. From beyond the nearly impenetrable veil he had slipped into in the final months of his long illness, Reb Meir’s face still lit up bright and his smile beamed as my daughter read him a story titled ‘The Man at the Wall,’ a beautiful, contemplative essay Bracha Goetz authored a few years ago about Reb Meir’s legendary life. I know that he knew at that moment, and I’m quite sure that this was the source of his smile, that this frum girl before him would not be learning at a seminary in Yerushalayim today were it not for his courageous efforts. Nor would thousands of others.  Blessed be the memory of Reb Meir Schuster who had an amazing capacity to go beyond his limitations, teaching us all that where passion aligns with purpose, there are no limitations.”

R’ Schuster is survived by his wife Esther, his four children and many grandchildren.