Borough Park, NY – A Brooklyn Street was officially Co-named in honor of a noted Charedi Rabbi who became known for his efforts to save the Jews of Slovakia from extermination at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust.
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The unveiling of the street co-naming of 50th Street between 10th Avenue and 20th Avenue to Rabbi Weissmandl Way was held this morning at the southwest corner of 50th Street and 16th Avenue.
Rabbi Weissmandl was a heroic resistance fighter whose efforts saved thousands of Jews during World War II. Thanks to the creation of his “Europa Plan,” he convinced German and Slovakian authorities to delay the mass deportation of Jews for two years.
Rabbi Weissmandl was one of the leaders of the underground Working Group who helped thousands of Polish refugees and Slovakian Jews. He dedicated himself to saving Jews and raising awareness of the mass extermination camps including Auschwitz.
“It’s not uncommon for people today to throw around the word hero. Today, anyone can be a hero. We throw around the term very loosely. We also throw around the word moser nefesh. Those aren’t the yardsticks we use when talking about holocaust heroes. R’ Michoel Ber Weissmandl was a hero. He was a Talmud Chacham. He was truly moser nefesh for yisorael. I am proud to rename a stretch of 50th Street between 10th and 20th Avenue, the location of the Nitra shuls, is the least we can do in tribute to this great Rabbi to ensure his legacy and heroism lives on in our community for generations to come,” said NYC Councilman David Greenfield who worked diligently to get the streets renamed.
“Thank you for this tremendous honor to be present here today and to participate in this street co-naming on 16th Avenue. Rabbi Weissmandl was one of the first to sound the alarm about what was happening in Europe and he was a hero of Hatzoloh,” said Elly Kleinman, founder and president of the Kleinman Holocaust Education Center.
“The time has come to recognize and remember Rabbi Weissmandl,zt”l, who was a real hero of our generation, whose only goal during the Holocaust was to save as many Jewish lives as possible,” said Ruth Lichtenstein, Publisher of Hamodia and Director of Project Witness.
“I want to thank David for his efforts to put up this sign for Rabbi Weissmandl Way, to Ari Fixler who put in a lot of effort and to Elly Kleinman for the holocaust museum. I had the privilege to be a very a close Talmid — disciple of–Talmid Muvhak of R’Weissmandl. He was a hero and a genius of centuries,” said Alfred Avraham Schonberger, Talmid Muvhak of R’Weissmandl
The New York City Council has exclusive authority to rename street blocks in commemoration of New Yorkers who have made an enduring and lasting impact on large segments of the City’s population and whose importance to the City is a result of exemplary acts. “No person is more befitting of this honor than Rabbi Weissmandl,” concluded Councilman Greenfield.
Very nice.
Just wondering – they couldn’t fit Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl’s whole name on the sign? Is he the ONLY Rabbi Weissmandl that ever was and will be? Every other commemorative street sign I’ve seen includes the complete name of the honoree.
BTW, I do see Councilman Greenfield’s whole name on his very noticeable sign. Just sayin’
Its a good thing the youth to know what this great Tzadik did for European Jewry.
But, its sad to see that the real truth what hurt Rabbi Weissmandel is not being told by our frum Askonim.
During the war he wrote numerous telegrams and letters to the outside world begging for help and they laughed him off. Those were the Zionists leaders like Chaim Weizmann,Ben-Gurion, Sally Mayer and the rest of the so called owners of worldwide Jewry. The answer they gave Rabbi Weismandel was Rak B’dam Tiye Lanu Haarez(Eretz Yisroel will be ours only by paying with blood).
So by memorizing this great Tzadik with street naming is not really what he wanted. He begged his Talmidim and wrote in his sefer Min Hameitzar that we shouldn’t forget what the Nazis did and we shouldn’t forget how the Zionist establishment did everything possible not to let Jews to be rescued.
In fact because of him exposing the Zionist in his Sefer it was banned in Israel.
After he died historians say that in his book he made major mistakes on specific dates which could never be reconsiled. Like his claim of the passover meeting which was impossible according records.
Just to ad what # 3 said
My grandfather was very involved in raising money to get Jew’s out of Europe and for every certain amount of money he said he was able to get out some more juice in fact he was partly responsible for getting out the Satmar Rebbe ZTL
And at some point the money went through the Zionist state
After a while he found out that the Zionist state was keeping the money and not sending it to Europe so he had to stop sending the money
TO all you Satmar, the despised Zionists SAVED YOUR REBBE!!!! Never forget that YOU UNGRATEFUL FABISIN haters.
Half of the credit is owed to Rabbi Wiessmandl’s cousin Gisi Fleischman, who was the head of Wizo (the women’s Zionist organization) in Slovakia.
They were co-leaders of the Bratizlava Working Group that tried to negotiate the Europa Plan. Mrs Fleischman sent her husband and children to “Palestine” and stayed behind to lead her community.
She arrived in Auschwitz with special orders to be gassed on arrival.
What is this? Is there a Rav Moshe Feinstein way, lane,street,avenue or boulevard among the streets of the LES?
If we are frum people then you perpetuate a gadol’ memory by publishing his seforim.. Rav Weissmandl ztl was a illy and phenomenal Talmud chochom who understood the secrets of Torah. Take the money instead to publish his chiddushim,etc. this is the YIDDISHE way of doing things. Rather than putting up silly meaningless street signs. I am shocked at this move by so-called frum people.
“Min HaMeztar” is translated to English. that said i read both Hebrew and English.