Iconic Williamsburg: Rav Manis Mandel

The first, and longest-serving, of the early institutions in Brooklyn is the Yeshiva of Brooklyn—founded in the 1920’s in Williamsburg. But the soul of the yeshiva, its driving force behind its growth and expansion to the present day was the legendary Rav Manis Mandel, zt”l—a child of old Williamsburg himself—and a mechanech with every fiber of his being who indelibly impacted thousands of talmidim and talmidos to their core. 

Against the Tide 

Without a doubt, one of the strongest aspects of Rav Manis’ impact, the way he connected with his talmidim and talmidos, laid in the fact that he was American born and raised—and marched forward proudly against the tide of the American culture, filled with joy in being a Yid. This was evident in everything he did and said throughout his decades-long chinuch career. 

While this was surely attributable to his own strength of character, it was built on a tradition bequeathed to him by his parents and by his rebbeim, most notably Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, zt”l, the great Torah pioneer, who would entrust this mission to Rav Manis.     

Menachem Manis was born in the neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn in the year 1916 to his parents Reb Zev Kehos and Fruma Leah Mandel. His father came from Husyatin, Poland, while his mother came from Kopyshnitz, Galicia. 

Reb Zev Kehos worked hard his entire life, and inculcated his children with ehrlichkeit and emes—likewise attributes that Rav Manis would carry with him for his entire life. In addition to her mesirus nefesh for the chinuch of her own children, Fruma Leah would soon found the first girls school in America, beginning a chain of chinuch habanos that continues to this day. 

When he was around two years old, the family moved upstate to a chicken farm in Woodridge. While his father worked hard delivering seltzer to the many Yidden who dotted that region in those days, his mother dedicated herself to the chinuch of her children.     

She hired a melamed by the name of Rabbi Chaim Shmuel Berman who would come to learn with the Mandel boys at 4:45 a.m. with great mesirus nefesh. Rabbi Berman’s piety and ahavas Hashem left a lifelong impact on the boys. In 1923, the family returned to Brooklyn, out of concern for the children’s chinuch. 

The Mandel home soon became a center of chessed and Yiddishkeit that would spread to the entire neighborhood. Rav Yitzchok Scheiner, shlit”a, related that during his Torah Vodaath years he ate every Shabbos at the Mandel home. “It was a taste of Olam Haboh.” Fruma Leah was a one-person chessed machine—especially during the depression years—she would collect money and provisions, and ensure that families in Williamsburg had food for Shabbos. 

As so many alumni of Yeshiva of Brooklyn can attest, Rav Manis’ overflowing, unconditional love and sensitivity for all of his students was certainly inherited from his mother.   

Upholding the Tradition 

Rav Manis entered Torah Vodaath in 1929, and became davuk in his rebbi, Rav Shraga Feivel, who returned the love in ample measure. Hardly a day would go by when Rav Manis would not mention his beloved rebbi. Rav Shraga Feivel appointed him as baal tefillah for Yomim Nora’im—a position that he held for more than six decades (!). His koach hatefillah was a thing of legend, and there are scores of people who tear up at the mention of Rav Mandel’s davenings. 

Rav Shraga Feivel told him, as he entrusted him with the leadership of Yeshiva of Brooklyn: “Go, it will be a stronghold.” The ensuing years—and the enormous growth of the twin institutions—are a testament to the fruition of this blessing given to this legend of Torah chinuch all those many years ago in old Williamsburg.