Iconic Williamsburg: Rav Avrohom Levovitz

Williamsburg was home to a sizable contingent of Mirer alumni, mostly European-born talmidim of the legendary yeshiva who kept the memories and the holy aura of the yeshiva inside their hearts for their entire days. Many of them were ge’onim in Torah, and would spend hours doing nothing else but learn in the Mirer minyan. 

Among them was none other than Rav Avrohom Levovitz, the eldest son of their beloved and deeply revered mashgiach. He would remain a respected member of this chaburah in a neighborhood that was rapidly changing, until his passing in the 1990’s. 

Rav Avrohom was born to his illustrious father, Rav Yeruchom Levovitz, zt”l, the mashgiach of the Mir, and to his mother Rivka, in the year 1898, and the child was named Avrohom, after Rav Yeruchom’s father. 

In the European Torah World 

Rav Avrohom learned in Kelm in the Talmud Torah, and later moved to Grodno, where he learned under Rav Shimon Shkop, zt”l, in Yeshiva Sha’ar HaTorah. He learned there with incredible diligence, and became known as one of the chashuve bachurim of the yeshiva, and one of the closest to Rav Shimon. 

In addition to this, he spent an intense consecutive five years learning under the Brisker Rov, Rav Yitzchok Ze’ev Soloveitchik, who greatly appreciated his talmid on account of his diligence in learning as well as his hasmodoh. Finally, from there he continues to the Mirer Yeshiva, which was geared for older bachurim, and where his father was by then serving as mashgiach. In photographs from that era in the Mir, one can see Rav Avrohom together with chaverim from that time, his stature obvious in the fact that he sported a beard, unlike most of the bachurim. 

Here he would also have heard the legendary shmuessen from his illustrious father, in addition to being in the incredible aura of the Mir. 

When the war arrived, he escaped together with the Yeshiva through Japan and China, arriving in America around 1941. He lost his wife and a child in the war, and he was heartbroken. The Torah would be his only consolation.

Williamsburg

He lived with in an apartment beneath his mother in Williamsburg. He would come each night to learn b’chavrusa with Rav Chaim Shereshevsky (Slonimer)—an old chaver from the Mir—and otherwise spend time with the chaverim from the Mir.  

In 1943, we find announced in Hapardes, he was appointed as a Ram in Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin—a position in which he served for close to thirty years, shaping thousands of talmidim. The yeshiva was then located on Stone Avenue in Brownsville. His shiurim there were legendary, attracted many talmidim. 

In the summer of 1948, he married Rebbetzin Basya, the daughter of Rav Eliezer Simcha Reich of Sighet. She had undergone the worst Geihinom of Auschwitz, and was left alone in the world (she had been orphaned of her father prior to the war). Together, they rebuilt a Torah home whose descendants continue to uphold the rich legacy of their families. 

He was the consummate ba’al mussar, and shied away from even the slightest gesture of kovod—even though he was automatically accorded great honor as the son of Rav Yeruchom, and as a great talmid chochom and eved Hashem in his own right. When he retired from his position in Chaim Berlin, he sat down to learn with the energy of a yeshiva bachur, day and night. One grand-nephew relates that the younger generations of the family always regarded Rav Avrohom with a certain awe. “We could tell that he was forged in the ways of mussar.” 

Even after he married, he continued to reside in the building at 168 Hooper Street—and what a building that was. On one level was Rebbetzin Levovitz, the almonoh of Rav Yeruchom. On another floor was Rav Dovid Bender’s family (Rav Dovid was a friend from the Mir, who passed away at an untimely age). One night of chanukah, the Bender children were playing, while their mother ran across the street to the grocery. One of the young children went over to the Chanukah licht, and soon the area caught fire. Rav Avrohom was on his way to ma’ariv, but through his quick actions, the Bender family was spared a great calamity, R”l. 

Prior to Pesach of 1992, he arrived in Eretz Yisroel to spend Pesach with his children. While there, he took ill, and was hospitalized. Rav Avraham was niftar on the 9th day of Iyar, and was eulogized by his chaverim from the Mir, Rav Dov Povarksy, Rav Michel Feinstein, and Rav Shlomo Wolbe. He was interred in on Har Hazeisim following a lifetime dedicated to Torah and teaching Torah, and serving as a pillar of a Mirer outpost in Williamsburg of yore.