Iconic Williamsburg: Rav Shlomo Zalman Richtman

The 1940’s Works Progress Administration photos are a gift to history lovers. 

On one “virtual tour” of old Williamsburg, we came across the building at 175 Hart Street. Now, in contrast to the Google Street View cars, photographers for the WPA had no qualms about photographing residents in front of their homes. 

And this how we came to see Rav Shlomo Zalman Richtman in front of his Shul, Machzikei Torah B’nei David, at 175 Hart Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Williamsburg. He seems to be engaged in conversation with workers of some kind. Another angle shows Rabbi Richtman standing outside the property with family members. 

A look through the WPA records brought up the following about the shul: “Supporters of the Law, Sons of David 175 Hart Street, Brooklyn. First Rabbi: Solomon Z. Richtman, 1936—. Synagogue on 1st floor, Rabbi resides ground and second floor.  

Satmar of Yore

Rav Shlomo Zalman was born in the spring of 1903 in Czechoslovakia to his father was Menachem Chaim Richtman. According to family lore, they were Satmar chassidim. 

He learned under Rav Eliezer Duvid Greenwald, known as the Keren L’Duvid, who was the ruv in Satmar, and considered himself a lifelong talmid of his. In addition, as could be expected from a young, brilliant Hungarian bachur, he learned in the Pressburger yeshiva—where the elite bachurim from throughout Hungary and Czechoslovakia learned. 

He married Alta Chana, the daughter of Reb Yitzchok Eizik Kahana of Kluj (Klausenberg), a descendant of the Mareh Yechezkel. Aside from her tremendous yichus, she was also his second cousin. 

Their son Eliezer Dovid Richtman was born to the couple back home. Named for his rebbe, the Keren L’Duvid, he is known as Rabbi Herbert Richtman, who served as a Rabbi of a number of communities and a chaplain in the United States Air Force. 

Eighteen months later, the family moved to America, having accepted the offer of a position as rov of the Romainische Shul. 

Chevra Machzikei Torah B’nei David 

In 1936, Rav Shlomo Zalman clashed with members of the congregation who sought to bring in a famous singer who would bring along female vocalists. At the same time, he saw an opportunity in Williamsburg to start a shul of his own. 175 Hart Street is on the outskirts of Williamsburg proper, situated between Throop and Tompkins Avenues. 

As an added source of income, he would host weddings inside the shul.  

Many people would come to Rabbi Richtman’s hall to get married—and the rabbi would perform the wedding, as well as host the wedding in his hall (this was a common arrangement in those days for many rabbonim). The customers included many servicemen who would take advantage of short furloughs in the midst of World War II to get married at Rabbi Richtman’s hall. 

Rebbetzin Richtman would keep meticulous records of the shul, and of the wedding hall. Herbie Richtman, and to a greater extent his younger brother Cheskie (named for their holy ancestor, the Mareh Yechezkel) would lend their beautiful voices to the ceremonies—thus, these weddings were a true family affair. 

From one bar mitzvah announcement we learn that, in addition to being called Congregation Machzikei Torah Bnei David, the hall itself was sometimes called Royal Manor. One memorable event held there was a very special bar mitzvah in October of 1947, as reported by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:  

“Parents help Boro Park, 13, conquer palsy. The story of 13-year-old Harry Aarons in a message of hope to all suffers from cerebral palsy. Through the efforts and devotion of his parents, Al and Beatrice Aarons of 163 Scholes Street, Barry has so triumphed over his affliction that Saturday he was able to celebrate his bar mitzvah in Educational Alliance, Broadway and Jefferson St., with Rabbi Charles Pries officiating.

“At a receltion held yesterday by his parents at Congregation Sons of David, 175 Hart Street, the tall, slender boy moved with confidence showing only occasional traces of his condition.”  

But as the years passed, this area of Williamsburg deteriorated, and so they moved out. 

At first they moved to Flatbush where they would daven at the shul of Rav Ruttner, a relative whom they had helped come to America.  “He was a Talmid Chochom,” recalls his daughter. “He was always learning… to the end of his life.”   

‘Heart in the East’

Rav Richtman loved Eretz Yisroel. When the Six-Day-War broke out, he refused to leave the country, saying, “whatever will happen to the Jewish People will happen to me.” 

In 1952, he wanted to reunite with his brothers and sisters who had survived the Holocaust. They were living in very poor conditions, and asked their brother for help. Around this time, a man named Brunner asked Rabbi Richtman to invest with him in two businesses, and he saw in this an opportunity to support his family, by enabling 

One place was a factory on Rechov Hayarkon in Tel Aviv, where they would manufacture box springs. This business venture never came to fruition. But the second business, a furniture business, did take off. “He knew nothing about this business. Whatever business he had known was only the Rabbinate, and the catering business. But he persevered. And he took the business to success,” relates his daughter. 

During those years, the Satmar Rebbe, Rebbe Yoel, zt”l, came to Eretz Yisroel, and Rabbi Richtman went to meet with him, since they had known each other back home. 

These decades found Rabbi Richtman spending more time in Eretz Yisroel than in America. For years he resided with his daughter in Haifa, and he also had many offspring who relocated to Eretz Yisroel. 

He was niftar in America in the year 1987 and was buried in Eretz Yisroel, having established beautiful Torah generations, and two decades of rabbonus in Old Williamsburg.