Iconic Williamsburg: Rabbi Chaim Gelb

The famed minyan Torah Vodaath on Wilson Street was packed for mincha with hundreds of Yidden—as it was every afternoon—and rushing between the pews with a yarmulke in his outstretched hand was the legend of Williamsburg, collecting for the neighborhood’s needy.

Suddenly, a bitter man called out, “Chaim, bizt a ganef! Chaim, you’re a thief! The room turned pin-drop silent. But Reb Chaim’s face did not even turn a shade redder, and kept right on collecting tzedakah. One sensitive Yid in the crowd ran after Reb Chaim and asked him: “I can understand if you don’t answer back… but how do you manage not to become even mildly embarrassed.” 

Reb Chaim answered: “I saw it brought down that if someone does for Yidden and incurs humiliation in the process, it is akin to suffering dalet misos beis din, the four deaths of beis din! Thus, why should I be bothered?!”

This elevated attitude defined Reb Chaim Gelb—a legend of Yiddishkeit in old Williamsburg— whose fortieth yohrtzeit is being marked this week, the 27th of Adar I. 

The Tzaddik’s Promise 

Chaim was born in the Galician town of Gorlice in the year 1894. His parents were Reb Yosef and Rosa. In 1901, when he was a young boy of seven years old, his parents made the decision to move to America along with their ten children—a decision that they did not make lightly. 

Before departing Europe, Chaim’s parents took him to Rebbe Baruch’l of Gorlice, a son of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, for a brocho. The Rebbe benched them that Chaim and his siblings should be Yirei Shomayim—a blessing that came to fruition in ample measure.  

Arriving in America, they found their way to the vibrant Jewish community on the Lower East Side. In those days, the Lower East Side was filled with pushcarts and peddlers, and Reb Yosef too found his way among the pushcarts of the East Side selling men’s hats and caps. His children, including young Chaim—who exhibited an early knack for salesmanship—assisted their father in the business.  

Although Chaim did not attend yeshiva—for yeshivos were almost nonexistent during his formative years— the Gelb’s home on the Lower East Side was a bastion of Yiddishkeit, just like it had been in the old home in Galicia. During these years, Chaim made his way around the Shuls of the East Side, and gleaned much inspiration from the great Rabbonim who led them and delivered shiurim in them. He would quote many of their teachings for the remainder of his life. 

He married Hena Rucker who hailed from Głogów, also in Galicia, and settled in Williamsburg where he would spend the rest of his life inspiring and uplifting everyone with whom he came in contact. 

Williamsburg’s Legendary Ba’al Chessed 

As an introduction to Reb Chaim’s outsized impact on the landscape of Williamsburg of yore, we turn to the introductory words to the book on his life, ably written by his son-in-law, Rav Dovid Fisher. 

“Anyone who remembers Williamsburg in its early days as a Jewish community has a warm spot for Reb Chaim Gelb. He was an original, a man whose love of the Creator and the Torah was matched only by his love of people and his totally unselfish devotion to their welfare.

“One person remembers him in sub-zero weather, dashing back and forth, bringing cake and hot coffee to shivering firefighters. Another remembers him buying hot knishes for little yeshivah students whose parents couldn't afford to give them five cents for the popular recess delicacy. Still another remembers him collecting coins and bills in his outstretched yarmulka at weddings, for distribution to poor people whose privacy and self-respect were as safe with him as the gold in Fort Knox.”

Long before there were communal organizations to assist the needy with chessed and loans, Reb Chaim would be Williamsburg’s one-man chessed machine, known throughout the community as pillar of compassion and action on behalf of his fellow Yidden. Reb Chaim’s activities extended far beyond chessed: any issue of k’vod Shomayim and k’vod habriyos mattered to deeply to him, and he went to the ends of the earth for their sake. 

At first the Gelb’s settled in a home on South 9th Street, near the Williamsburg Bridge, and soon relocated to 210 Division Avenue where four children were born to them. Like his father, Reb Chaim began to work as a salesman for a company, a vocation that allowed him to keep Shabbos. 

Only for Hashem 

Around the year 1934, the company he worked for closed its doors as the result of a strike. The workers went into business for themselves—each paying in a certain amount of capital to their new venture—and offered their colleague, Reb Chaim, to come in with them at no charge, due to his incredible salesmanship abilities. 

It was then that Reb Chaim made the fateful and courageous decision to dedicate himself 100% to Hashem and His children, pursuing a life of Torah, tefillah, mitzvos, and gemilus chassodim exclusively. 

Enabling him to dedicate himself fully—conducting a schedule that ran from 5:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night, all for Hashem and his fellow Yidden—was his devoted eishes Chayil, Mrs. Hena Gelb. She took over the operation of the family commission bakery on Division Avenue. The bakery did not bake its own goods, but procured them from other bakeries. Here they were faced with a problem: Williamsburg did not have its own Shomer Shabbos bakery, and to do business with non-shomer Shabbos establishments was unthinkable for Reb Chaim, and so they brought in baked goods from bakeries on the Lower East Side.