Iconic Williamsburg: Rav Shraga Leib Brill

As we continue our journey through the streets of old Williamsburg, and the foundations of the Jewish community that were being formed there around the turn-of-the century, we come upon the old Chevra Mishnayos Gemilath Chasodim Anshe Zedek of Williamsburg—founded in the early 1920’s on South Second Street—and its rov, Rav Shraga Leib Brill, an alumnus of the great Lithuanian Torah centers who succeeded in remaining true to his ahavas haTorah, and paving the way for his future generations to do this same. 

Rav Shraga Leib was born in the small town of Kretinga, situated at the far west of Lita, seventy kilomters to the west of Telshe. 

He married Pesha Chana Amiel, the daughter of Rav Yaakov Yosef and Rivka of Porozów, near Grodno. Her brother, Rav Moshe Avigdor Amiel—likewise a prime graduate of the greatest yeshivos, and a musmach from the Ohr Someach and the Rogachover, and others— would later become the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv. Rav Moshe Avigdor was the rov of Grajewo (Greyeve), near Biyalistok, and he invited his younger brother-in-law to lead the yeshiva in the town. 

His caliber was soon recognized, and he became a dayan in the town. When Rav Amiel moved to Antwerp to assume its rabbonus, Rav Brill assumed his position.  

America 

In 1925, the Brill’s arrived in America, and made their way to Milwaukee, where they had relatives. After a while there, Rav Shraga Leib sought a rabbinic position, and set out for New York, which would also have been a more suitable environment for the chinuch of his young children. He left his seforim and belongings behind in Milwaukee, and set off to arrange a rabbinic position in New York at the recently-founded shul on South 2nd Street. When he returned, all the seforim had been sold (these were very difficult times in America, and perhaps the family had no choice but to sell them). 

Soon he became the Rav of Chevra Mishnayos in Williamsburg. 

Thus, by 1939, Rav Brill had already been established In Brooklyn, holding the position at Chevra Mishnayos for 12 years. He would remain there until his passing in 1951, an additional twelve years. The shul became known under his tenure as a center for Torah. He would deliver many shiurim and lectures with regularity, and people were attracted there for this reason. He also published many ma’amorim in halachah in the Hapardes Torah journal—many of them on practical halachah, and when the refrigerator became common, he was the first to publish a teshuvah on opening the appliance on Shabbos in a halachically-permissible way.

A Leading Rov in New York 

Rav Brill became a prominent, active member of Agudas Harabanim and Vaad Harabanim of New York. 

His daughter, Sheina, married Yeshaya Bick, the son of Rav Chaim Bick, zt”l, the rov of Meziboz, and later in the Bronx and other communities—and it is interesting to note that his name appears alongside that of his mechutan responding to a teshuvah authored by Rav Yaakov Kantrowitz, the rov of Trenton, and a noted early American posek. 

Rav Brill’s name also appears on a 1943 petition to the Israeli organizations (in the pre-State days), organized by Agudas Harabonim, asking them to cease placing children from religious homes into non-religious environments in Eretz Yisroel. 

Upon his passing in 1951, Hapardes wrote: After an illness, Rav Shraga Leib Brill. The niftar was a metzuyan in middos, who was always immersed in Torah and chessed. His zehirus in mitzvos, with care given to even the lightest mitzvah, served as an example to his children whom he was mechanech in the true spirit of Torah. Until his last days, he sat immersed in Torah and avodah, and occupied with good deeds. 

Rav Shraga Leib left this world on 2 Adar, 1971, and the following entities placed a notice in the Morgen Zhournal (featured here) in advance of the levaya, which left from his home at 301 S. 1st, and proceeded to the chevra Mishnayos where he had served for a quarter-century: Sheina and Yeshaya Bick, the Rebbetzin and children, Vaad Harabonim of New York, and Agudas Harabonim of the U.S and Canada. 

He is interred in the Tiferes Jerusalem section in Beth David Cemetery, a plot that is noted for the numerous prominent Rabbonim, who, like Rav Shraga Leib, illuminated the darkness of America of yore.