Iconic Williamsburg: Rav Zev Wolf Hirschprung, zt”l

Adjacent to the ohel of the Sadigerer Rebbe lies the grave of Rav Zev Volf Hirschprung of Krakow, a ga’on and yarei Shomayim who was the longtime rov of the Sadigerer Kloiz on Attorney Street in the Lower East Side, and spent his last years on Keap Street in Williamsburg.   

He was born to his father, Rav Mordechai, in 1870. He received semicha from Rav Chaim Aryeh Leib Hurwitz, Av Beis Din of Krakow, and from the Maharsham of Brezan. He married the daughter of Rav Avrohom Yosef Gelerenter, Av Beis Din of Yashnitza, a town situated about 35 south of Krakow, author of Imrei Ya’i, and a descendant of the Revid Hazahav, and other important seforim. The couple’s oldest son, Mordechai, learned under his illustrious maternal grandfather. 

Around the turn of the century, with waves of immigrants coming to America, shuls and landsmanhaftn were cropping up all over New York, more concentrated on the Lower East Side—the center of Jewish of life at that time. The Sadigerer Kloiz was one of the more prominent ones, and was located at 102 (alternatively 159) Attorney Street, between Rivington and Delancey streets. This congregation hired Rav Wolf to serve as their spiritual leader, and he arrived at Ellis Island on April 7, 1903, aboard the SS Southwark.  

The aforementioned son, Rav Mordechai, entered Yeshiva Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchonon, and would be its first musmach. 

Rav Wolf was a great Talmid chochom who spent much of his time learning. He assisted the great Rav Yehoshua Segal of New York in publishing his extensive response on the permissibility of an eruv in New York.     

Generations of Torah 

His son Rav Mordechai served numerous kehillos in America. After entering RIETS, he soon began to give shiurim to the advanced class, and was known for his weekly mishmar in which he would remain awake learning for the entire night. 

He received semicha from America’s foremost Rabbonim: Rav Hillel Klein, Rav Avrohom Joffen, Ramaz Margolies, Rav Aharon Kotler, and Rav Sholom Elchanan Yoffe. 

From 1925-1929, he served as a Rav in Savanna, Georgia, and greatly enhanced Jewish life in the city.  From 1929-31, he served as the chief Rabbi of Canton Ohio, and in this time he was elected to the World Jewish Congress. Then came his tenure at the helm of Agudath Achim in Columbus Ohio, which lasted from 1932-1949. During this time he established a day school—a move that took much courage and tenacity— and accomplished the goal of having a second building in another area of town, so people would not have to walk too far. He would lecture on Jewish issues in the University of Ohio. From 1950 and on, he served the community of Demoine Iowa. 

A later Rav of Agudath Achim in Columbus noted that Rav Hirschprung was known as a tremendous talmid chacham, a writer, and a brilliant orator. As one who was committed to halachah, he worked hard to try and get his congregants to follow halachah—and this was not always easy. He authored two sefarim on halachic matters, and was active in Rabbinic circles, especially in the Midwest. Rav Mordechai was niftar two days after Yom Kippur of 1954—returning a cleansed soul to its maker—and was interred in the Chev Chasidei Sadigire Tiferet Israel M’Ruzin of Beth David Cemetery. 

Another son, Aaron, was a great Talmid chochom, and married the daughter of one Rav Leizer Silber of Williamsburg. He was sadly niftar at a young age. A daughter Rivka married Eliezer Shraga Gross, and they have many descendants who follow ardently in the ways of Torah and mitzvos.  

They follow in the footsteps of their illustrious ancestor, and his broader Hirschprung family, who blazed for them a trail in America of yore, and was niftar ninety years ago in Old Williamsburg.