Eliezer Silver
Rabbi Eliezer Silver (15 February 1882 - 1968) was the President of the Agudath HaRabbonim of America and among American Jewry's foremost religious leaders. He helped save many thousands of Jews in the Second World War and held several Rabbinical positions in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Ohio.
Biography
Rabbi Silver was born in Kovno, Lithuania, one of two sons. He had centuries-old rabbinic ancestry and on his mother's side was a descendant of King David.
He studied in Dvinsk, with Rabbi Yosef Rosen (the "Rogatchover Gaon") and received Semicha from Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in 1906. He immigrated to the United States with his wife in 1907, to escape the anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. The young couple settled in New York City, where Rabbi Silver worked as a garment salesman and later sold insurance.
However, Rabbi Silver soon accepted a Rabbinical position in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His Torah scholarship soon drew him into leading Orthodox circles on the national level. In 1912, he was part of a delegation of rabbis that asked President William Howard Taft to void a treaty with Russia because of Russia's persecution of Jews.
In 1914, when Rabbi Silver traveled abroad to visit his parents, he was caught in Russia as World War I broke out. Stranded for seven months by Russia's refusal to recognize an American passport issued to a Jew, he eventually crossed the border into Norway under an assumed name and returned home in 1915.
Rabbi Silver was active in relief efforts in World War I. In 1925 he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. Around 1931, he accepted an invitation to become Rabbi in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained until his passing.
Rabbi Silver was very active in the Agudath HaRabbonim, elected its president in 1929. He was also a pivotal founder, organiser and president of Agudath Israel of America.
World War II rescue activities
Rabbi Silver convened an emergency meeting in November 1939 in New York City, where the Vaad Hatzalah (Rescue Committee), was formed, with Rabbi Silver as president. Rabbi Silver spearheaded its efforts in rescuing as many European Torah scholars as possible from Nazi Europe.
Rabbi Silver launched a fund-raising drive that raised more than $5 million, and also capitalised on an exemption to US immigration quotas allowing entry to ministers or religious students. At his direction, synagogues in Cincinnati and across the country sent contracts to rabbis, thereby securing 2,000 emergency visas that were telegraphed to Eastern Europe.
With the increasingly desperate race against time, the Vaad, under Rabbi Silver turned to all channels, whether legal or not [1] , to save as many lives as possible by bringing Jews to the US, Canada and Palestine. Sympathetic foreign diplomats provided fake visas for immigration; counterfeiters were paid to produce phony passports.
During WWII, a Vaad representative in Switzerland even negotiated with the SS, offering to ransom concentration camp prisoners for cash and tractors - talks that freed hundreds from Bergen-Belsen and other death camps.
In October 1943, as the scale of Nazi atrocities was becoming clearer, Rabbi Silver helped organise and lead a mass rally of more than 400 rabbis in Washington to press for more decisive action by the US government to save European Jews. The rally was organized by Hillel Kook's "Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe". [2]
On the steps of the Capitol, Vice President Henry A. Wallace heard Rabbi Silver's plea to deliver European Jews from extermination. The public reaction to President Roosevelt's snub (where he avoided meeting the rabbis) helped build pressure to form the War Refugee Board, which rescued tens of thousands of Jews. [2]
Rabbi Silver's ceaseless lobbying of the White House, the Vatican, the Kremlin and neutral governments on behalf of Europe's Jews directly saved at least 10,000 lives and helped spare tens of thousands more.
Post-World War II
After the war, when the full extent of the Nazi atrocities came to light, Rabbi Silver began planning for reconstruction. In 1946, he distributed relief funds and helped expedite visas to Jews in eight European nations - wearing, with government permission, a US Army uniform for extra protection in areas where anti-Semitism was still rife. When donations were insufficient, Rabbi Silver often spent his own money to meet refugees' needs.
In the post-war years, when Rabbi Silver helped many Jews escape the Communist countries of Europe behind the Iron Curtain, he personally guaranteed countless loans - many of which he had to repay himself.
Rabbi Silver died penniless in 1968. He was interred at Washington Cemetery (Knesseth Israel) in Cincinnati. He had been Rabbi of the Kneseth Israel Congregation in Cincinnati for nearly 40 years. He authored the Sefer titled Anfe Erez.
Progeny
Rabbi Silver's son David inherited his position in Harrisburg, PA until his own death in the late 1990s. Rabbi Silver insisted that his four children attain their university degrees, and more. His two daughters, Yetta and Fruma Pessa (Dr Nathan's twin), both acquired their Masters Degrees. Rabbi Silver's youngest, Dr Nathan Silver, received his Medical Degree from the University of Cincinnati. He took advanced courses in Cardiology at Harvard University where he led a sucessful effort to be excused from taking classes on the Jewish Sabbath. He was a Liberator of Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp, serving as a Captain in Gen'l Patton's 3rd Army. He examined one of the top Nazi murderer's, Hermann Goerring before his trial at Nuremberg Goerring committed suicide before ever going to trial. Dr Nathan Silver was a highly respected Cardioligist. His peers judged him to be amongst the foremost Diagnosticians of his day. In 1946 Rabbi Silver founded the Chofetz Chaim Day School (today it is also known as the Cincinnati Hebrew Day School. He did this in part, so that his grandaughter Judy would have a place to go to in Cincinnati to study the Torah and learn Gemmora. Rabbi Silver insisted that his Day School maintain the highest academic levels called for in the state of Ohio. He personally interviewed each and every aspiring faculty member. Most of his teachers in the English Dep't were former principles of schools. In his Hebrew Dep't, he assured that only top-knotch credentialed educators were retained. After all, his own grandaughter Judy would be a pupil at his school. Rabbi Aharon Silver of Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh is a descendant of Rabbi Silver Barry Silver, Cincinnati is active in the Chabad community. Joshua Silver works in New York. It was apparent to anyone in or outside of the family or anyone who had a relationship with Rabbi Silver, that his favorite and closest granchild was Judy Silver (Shapiro). He did not choose to hide that fact. Judy was his only grandchild to learn to speak a fluent LITVAK Yiddish. (the Rabbi's native language). She could converse with her ZAIDI in either English or Yiddish. Early on Judy marveled at her Grandfather's worldliness. He was keenly aware of the politics and current events of his day. Rabbi Silver was also a student of History. He had little patience for mediocrity or the "Shtetl Mentality.' One of his quotes that stays in the forefront of Judy's memory is "It is better to be criticized by someone intelligent then to be praised by a fool." Judy's mother, Lillian Slutsky-Silver spoke a "perfect" LITVAK Yiddish. She afforded the Rabbi the love, honor and respect he so richly deserved. Most thought she was his daughter, not his daughter-in-law. For decades she was honored as the Volunteer of the Year, and always reached out to those in need. Judy learned her ACTIVISM directly from her grandfather. To this day she is active in the fight against the alarming rise of worldwide Anti-Semitism in the 21st century. She has received awards and much recognition and praise for her efforts. Gerson Silver was president of NASW, Ohio for a brief time. He received a Volunteer of the Year award once from a local organization (Dayton). Ezri Silver is an executive in the Fashion industry (NYC).
References
- ^ Barry M. Horstman (5 Nov 1999). "Eliezer Silver: Rabbi rescued thousands". Cincinnati Post. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ a b Dr. Rafael Medoff (October 2003). "The Day the Rabbis Marched on Washington". Retrieved 2006-07-06.
External links
- Rabbi Eliezer Silver, hebrewbooks.org
- He Saved Thousands, ou.org