Iconic Williamsburg: Rav Menachem Mendel Leib Lokshin

Our previous foray into the early history of Williamsburg involved the most prominent concentration of Yidden at that time, which was on Moore Street, which featured a number of large shuls. 

One of them that we alluded to was Chevra Sfard Anshei Lubawitz, 125-127 Moore Street, near Bushwick Avenue, a block away from Chevra Kaddisha which was at 93 Moore, near Graham Avenue. This shul was the last of the ‘big ones’ to remain in operation, long after the exodus to other areas of Williamsburg following the erection of enormous housing projects in that area. 

Today we focus on the life of a remarkable rov of that shul, one of—if not the—most important figure in the Chabad movement in America, instrumental in founding its organizations that began spreading Yiddishkeit in America in the 1920’s, and seen everywhere at the side of Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok of Lubavitch during his visit to the United States in 1929—following his miraculous rescue, in which Rav Lokshin had a central role. 

Rabbonus in Russia 

He was born in 1873 in the Russian city of Morgorod, near Poltava. As his matzeiva indicates, Rav Mendel originated ‘migezah kedoshin,’ from a line of holy men—only their identity is not known to us. Nevertheless, we know that he was a great talmid chochom, and a highly-regarded rov in Krivorog, a large city in the Dniepopotrovsk area of Ukraine. He married his Rebbetzin Chana—from the same city— in Mirgorod in 1890, and he must have begun his three-decade tenure as the rov of Krivorog soon after; for his eldest daughter was born there in 1892, and his subsequent seven children were born there as well, through 1912. 

He arrived in America with his four younger children in 1923. On the ship’s manifest, his American address would be at Cong. Ahavas Achim in Brownsville. Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson of Brownsville wrote about his own arrival in America, and his search for a rabbinic position. “Rabbi Lokshin served for a year in Brownsville—and was in charge of five shuls—and I hoped to assume leadership of one of them. After a year, he accepted the position at the Lubavitcher shul on Moore Street.”

Tragedy struck the family in the following year, as we read in one of the Torah journals of that time: “In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, there is a union of chassidim, and at their helm stands the ga’on Rav Menachem Mendel Lokshin. On Wednesday parashas Pekudei, a fire broke out in the home of Rav Lokshin and consumed the entire home, and the rov and his household were miraculously spared, with only their clothes on their backs. The large Torah library in his home—including many rare manuscripts—was mostly burned in the fire. Prominent balebatim are working to find a new home for the distinguished rov…to restore the lost glory.”