Rabbi's Blog

Dear Shaare Family,

Shabbos Channukah marks the 34th Yahrtzeit of one of the most important Rabbis in American Jewish History- someone who really was the grandfather of Modern Orthodocy but is largely forgotten outside of certain circles. His name was Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung.

Rabbi Jung was born in 1892 in Moravia to Rabbi Dr. Meir Zvi Jung, an adherent of the Torah Im Derech Eretz philosophy of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. The senior Rabbi Jung subsequently moved to London, where he was a member of Agudath Israel and a founder of the Sinai movement, which encouraged young Jews to study Torah and socialize together. Rabbi Jung attended Cambridge University and received a doctorate from the University of London, but also attended Yeshivot in Germany and Hungary; he was a graduate of the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary and held certificates of Rabbinic ordination from no fewer than three Rabbis- Rabbi Mordechai Zvi Schwartz, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook and Rav David Zvi Hoffman. Aside from the rarefied academic circles in which he moved, he had relationships with some of the great Rabbinic leaders of Eastern Europe; he was fond of telling about his relationship with the Chafetz Chaim, among others. 

Rabbi Jung came to the United States in 1920 to serve as a congregational Rabbi in Cleveland. Americans had never seen anyone like him- a bearded Rabbi with a PhD who spoke fluent English. In 1922, he was invited to serve as Rabbi of The Jewish Center, a relatively new synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that had recently had a public falling out with their founding Rabbi, Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Kaplan, who began espousing decidedly non-Orthodox views. In the same year, he married Irma Rothschild (1897-1993), from a prominent Orthodox Swiss family. He would serve as  Rabbi of the Jewish Center from 1922 until 1958, and then Rabbi Emeritus from 1958 until 1987, when he passed away on Shabbos Channukah at the age of 95. Rabbi Jung was a man of austere bearing who was  committed to demonstrating that Orthodoxy was as dignified, as decorous and as relevant as any other Jewish denomination, and this was manifest in the rules he instituted and enforced at The Jewish Center. Officers and Rabbis at The Jewish Center wear top hats and morning suits on Shabbatot and Chaggim; one is not permitted to cross one’s legs while on the Jewish Center Bimah, brown shoes are off limits and a man who is not wearing a jacket or tie will not receive an aliyah or any other kind of kibbud. Rabbi Jung’s speeches contained innovative homiletics and were fascinating to listen to- and on a regular Shabbat, they were always exactly 12 minutes long. But to reduce him to the status of an enforcer of artificial formality would be to trample on the most important parts of the legacy of this remarkable individual. 

Even more than his scholarship, and more than his link to the world of the European Yeshivos and Gedolim, Rabbi Jung was an outstanding pastoral Rabbi. There  are still families in the Jewish Center and beyond with whom Rabbi Jung was involved for three or even four generations. He was well known for the walks he took with members around the reservoir in Central Park and for the visits he would pay to members’ homes, as well as the gentle manner in which he conducted Bikkur Cholim. There were many young men and women who developed very close, formative relationships with him that continued when they went to college, including a young man named Herman Wouk- read here for his account of their close connection . 

But Rabbi Jung was also a fearless leader, who looked out on the landscape of American Jewry and saw needs that he immediately strove to fill. During his time at The Jewish Center, he was a forceful spokesman for Orthodox Judaism in a time when it was unpopular, and he was involved in the founding and support of almost every major Orthodox organization in the United States and abroad. So much of the Jewish life that you and I take for granted would not be possible if not for his efforts. Rabbi Jung was one of the founders of the OU and Torah Umesorah, he fundraised tirelessly for the Beis Yaakov movement even when it was still in Poland, and was especially instrumental in saving the lives of many thousands of Jews, especially Rabbis and their families, during World War II. Among them was the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, R’ Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson zt”l, also known as the Rebbe Rayatz.  When the previous Rebbe came to the United States, he spent the first short at the former Greystone Hotel on the Upper West Side, and the first fundraising melava malka for Chabad in the United States was held at the Jewish Center. The attorney who secured the visas for the Rebbe Rayatz was a member of the Jewish Center named Sam Kramer. Anyone who has ever benefited from the kindness and dynamism of a Chabad Shaliach, the warmth of a Chabad House during their travels or the  love of a Chabad presence on campus during their college experience owes a debt of gratitude to Rabbi Jung, without whom it would largely be impossible. Rabbi Jung was also at the forefront of promoting the observance and the reemergence of mitzvot that had fallen by the wayside; he was responsible for the construction of some 15 aesthetically pleasing mikvaot in the United States, was a force in the standardization of kashrut supervision and the encouragement of private kashrut observance, and spoke regularly about the importance of keeping Shabbat. 

This Shabbat is the 35th Anniversary of the founding of Shaare Tefilla. Our success as a shul and as a community would not have been possible without the pioneering efforts of Rabbi Jung and his colleagues. On a personal note, during my four years as Assistant Rabbi at the Jewish Center, I sat in Rabbi Jung’s seat on the left side of the Aron Kodesh. The chair was massive, both literally and figuratively. May we all be worthy of his efforts.

Shabbat Shalom and Channukah Sameach,

Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky