Rav Avrohom Ausband, zt”l
He strongly influenced the lives of thousands of talmidim and followers. They – and others like myself, who also gained from him – are in shock over his petirah. It occurred as we could have imagined he would have preferred, taken in an instant while standing in his yeshiva, Yeshiva of the Telshe Alumni, commonly referred to as “Riverdale.”
I was not a talmid. If anything, I was more of a sparring partner. Someone remarked that he thought that the reason Rav Ausband accepted two of my sons in his elite yeshiva was to see which of the two of us would hashkafically prevail in the chinuch of my sons. Let’s just say that his efforts yielded fruit. He became a major influence in their lives, although they did wind up on my side of the hashkafic divide.
That divide was pronounced. But our interactions were always beyond cordial. He always received me with warmth, his infectious smile, and an abundance of energy which led me to believe that he was much younger than me, rather than older. At those times that I visited from California and picked up my kids, he always sat me down and wanted to hear what was going on in the world I knew, and my take on it. He possessed so much curiosity, an asset that is so important in achieving greatness.
The distance that separated us puzzled me. Telz in Europe, after all, was viewed as a “progressive” Lithuanian yeshiva relative to others. It introduced secular studies on the primary level. It had a mechina program. The famed Yavneh seminary for women was only one way in which Telz women were treated differently than they were elsewhere in Europe. Rav Ausband was both the grandson and son of previous Telz luminaries. But some of his hashkafa was pretty far from the community’s median position. How did he fit into the Telz mode?
Perfectly, I came to understand. Telz produced powerful voices. Firebrands, at times. (I was privileged to know one of them, Rav Gavriel Ginsberg, zt”l, when he lived in Queens.) Even the ones who did not constantly exude passion were strong, confident figures, and brilliant communicators. (Think of Rav Gifter, zt”l, and yibadel l’chaim, Rav Zev Leff.) Telz allowed for individuality, rather than suppressing it. Rav Ausband was entirely within that tradition.
Yehi zichro baruch.
I once attended a dinner for Telz-Riverdale but knew nothing about the niftar. But on Shabbat my local Rabbi, similar to you hashkafically, spoke glowingly of Rav Ausband zt’l. He noted that Rav Willig spoke at the levaya, something that does not happen often enough in our fractured world.
Rav Willig published a Haggadah this year in which he mentioned the warm relations that existed between the YI of Riverdale and the Yeshiva .I think that I heard that R Ausband ZL and his family were on the same floor in the same building as Rav Willig in Riverdale
Rav Willig noted that in his hesped.
For those who have not heard or read R Willig;’s Hesped see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRjVn1vUSDshttps://www.yutorah.org/lectures/1109189/The-Messages-Embedded-in-Elul-%5Band-Divrei-Hesped-for-Rav-Avrohom-Ausband-zt%22l%5D and https://www.torahweb.org/torah/2024/parsha/rwil_kiteitsei.html and here https://mkymoments.com/2024/09/08/from-the-archive-of-a-nation-just-under-a-week-ago-rav-avraham-ausband-participating-in-the-wedding-of-the-grandson-of-his-neighbor-and-close-friend-rabbi-mordechai-willig/
My first 2 years of high school were spent in Telshe (Cleveland). Rav Isaac Ausband (Avreimel’s father) was the Rosh Mechinah (High school) then. His Hashkafos were decidedly not identical to the Yeshiva he served. Avreimel (as he was known then) was my age, But R’ Isaac insisted his son skip high school and sent him straight to the post high school Beis HaMedrash program. (Shiur Beis IIRC). e was obviously very bright.
I think this is why his Shitah was not al that favorable to the secular studies program that his own Yeshiva offered. He apparently only offered it because it was the Shitah of Telshe and because the parents wanted it.
He once said if it were up to him, the only subject he would teach is English since he felt it was necessary to communicate well in the language of the country.
Interesting. I’ve never heard of R.Ausband. And having read this article, I have no idea if he was to the left or right of you. And I don’t want or need to know.
A lovely hesped.
May his memory be a blessing.
I was privileged to spend several Shabbatot in the yeshiva when it was in Westwood, NJ (I was in high school at MTA at the time- early 80’s). Rav Ausband ztl inspired- in his schmuessen, in his davening, in his demeanor. The Rosh Yeshiva was holding in all realms of Torah- lomdus in depth, Ramban on the Torah, Maharal and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Warm and friendly, with strong convictions- no contradiction.
The Nazis tried their best to eradicate Dvar Hashem from this world- including murdering his grandfather, the Rav and Rosh Yeshiva hyd of Telz whom Rav Ausband is named for. They failed; Rav Ausband continued, and built upon the glorious Telz tradition- (with substantial Brisker input).
May the family receive much Nechama and may his sacred work continue.
Beautiful and well said
There were a few pieces on Cross Currents over the years mentioning Rav Ausband zt”l and how he drew lessons from current events. For example, following Bin Laden’s elimination, R. Ausband spoke about learning the power of good from the power of evil(“Telshe, Bin Laden, and the Congo,” 5/12/11), and he made pedagogical use of a financial scandal in the Orthodox world(” Silver Lining of the LA Scandal Cloud, 1/18/08).
During the 2006 Lebanon War, he spoke in LA and referred to an anecdote about Rav Chaim Shmulevitz who attributed surviving the Six Day War near the Jordanian border to a woman who overlooked her husband having abandoned her with many children. “We should all do the same, concluded Rav Ausband, abandoning the complaints and issues that keep people apart from each other.” See link to the latter piece:
https://cross-currents.com/2006/08/02/al-zeh-hayah-daveh-libenu/
Yehi zichro baruch.
Re. Yavneh seminary for women, in an appreciation for Rebbetzin Chaya Ausband, Rav Ausband’s mother and founder of Yavne Teachers College in Cleveland Heights who died in 2020, Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz wrote:
“She was rigorous and honest in her portrayal of the Eastern European Torah world, in a way that could be surprising to her Haredi students, raised on a mythology of prewar piety and uniformity. I remember a conversation about the practice of married women covering their hair. A classmate asked how the women in prewar Telz covered their hair. “Most of them didn’t,” Morah said, to her astonishment. My sister, who attended Yavne some years after I did, remembers Morah recounting how the students of the Yavne school for girls in Telz viewed the students of Sarah Schenirer’s Bais Yaakov in Krakow as hopelessly provincial and unsophisticated. Those Polish girls learned exclusively Torah studies. The Lithuanian students of Yavne studied Torah, and Hebrew language—and calculus.”
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/rebbetzin-chaya-ausband
I would add to Dr. Press Schwartz’s above discussion that in one of the biographies of Dr. Judith Grunfeld(wife of Dayan Isidor Grunfeld) who was a pioneer of the Bais Yaakov Movement in Krakow alongside Sarah Schenirer, there is a reproduction of a curriculum outline for a Bais Yaakov school in Poland(without a particular name) which included classes in psychology, pedagogy, languages, literature, history and geography. I would therefore be interested in clarification regarding “Polish girls learned exclusively Torah studies,” to which Rebbetzin Ausband was referring(perhaps there were differences within the different Polish Bais Yaakovs). This curriculum of the above-mentioned Polish Bais Yaakov can be found in the appendix to “Rebbetzin Grunfeld: The Life of Judith Grunfeld, Courageous Pioneer of the Bais Yaakov Movement and Jewish Rebirth,” Mesorah Publications).
The Bais Yaakov school in Poland(without a particular name) which included classes in psychology, pedagogy, languages, literature, history and geography was probably either an elementary or high school. The school in Krakow (and Yavne) were seminaries. The Bais Yaakov seminary in Krakow did not teach any secular subjects.
“The Bais Yaakov school in Poland… was probably either an elementary or high school”
The curriculum outline I referred to has a section on pedagogy and more advanced Jewish texts as detailed below. These items, as well as the psychology course I mentioned previously, gave me the impression that the Bais Yaakov in question was a teacher-preparatory, seminary type of program.
The pedagogy section includes these items:
Erziehung’s Lehre (History of Education)
Allgemeine Schulkunde(Principles of Pedagogics)
Schul Hygiene(Social, School, Mental Hygiene)
Also included in the curriculum are these Jewish texts:
Luzzatto, The Way of the Pious
Hirsch, Gesammelte Schriften, 19 Briefe
I. Breuer, Judenproblem, Messiasspuren
(The last two items are 1918 essays by R. Isaac Breuer.)