Williamsburg Memories: Eliezer (Louis) Feinermanm, Pioneer of Non-Shatnez Clothing

Back in Williamsburg of yore, Yidden who were dedicated to a life of Torah and Yiddishkeit were few and far between. Yidden of that time lived with tremendous nisyonos with regard to Shabbos, kashrus, and other mitzvos, and rare were those who overcame the challenges and the allure of the ‘goldene medinah.’ 

But even among these early heroes of American Jewry, the mitzvah of not wearing shatnez clothing was not a popular cause… it was something of a forgotten mitzvah. Eliezer Feinerman of Hooper Street in old Williamsburg was a tailor by trade, and a pioneer in selling clothing clean from Shatnez to his Torah-observant brethren throughout the New York region in the days of prewar America. 

A young bachur, Eliezer came over with his father and his uncle in the year 1907, settling at first on East Broadway on the Lower East Side of New York, like so many immigrants from that time. Unlike many of the immigrants, they came in through the Canadian border, since Eliezer had weak eyesight, and would possibly not have been allowed in at Ellis Island. 

By the time he married Lillian Hendel—who was born on the Lower East Side and grew up on Morton Street in Williamsburg—in 1921, Eliezer was already in the clothing business, an industry where he would chart a course in pioneering non-shatnez clothing. 

Williamsburg

The couple settled in Williamsburg, where Mr. Feinerman became very involved with the recently-established Torah Vodaath—for which he always sought to recruit talmidim. 

He loved Torah and he loved Rabbonim. Many Rabbonim who came from Europe came through the Feinerman home, and he assisted them in getting acclimated. Rav Menachem Mendel Kasher—a renowned Polish ga’on who wrote prolifically, and spent a number of years in America— was one of them. He stayed with the Feinerman’s for a while. Another was one Rabbi Bender, possibly Rav Avrohom Bender, the father of Rav Dovid Bender of Torah Vodaath. 

“He was always going to the docks to meet the rabbonim,” recalls a grandchild. 

He had an ardent connection with Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Hakohen Kook, zt”l, and corresponded with him on a number of occasions. In 1924, when Rav Kook came to America to raise funds for his yeshiva, Louis Feinerman accompanied him on his stops. 

A daughter who was four years old at the time that he passed away relates that, although she doesn’t know a lot about her father’s life, “I was told that he learned with the rebbeim of his time, and many people looked up to him.” 

As noted above, he learned in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchonon. One of his rebbeim there was Rav Elazar Mayer Preil of Elizabeth. He would take his three young sons to Elizabeth, New Jersey, to visit Rav Preil (this was recalled by Rivkah Teitz-Blau in her book learn Torah, love Torah, live Torah, where she refers to Louis as the first manufacturer of non-Shatnez clothing). 

Kosher Clothing 

At some point, Mr. Feinerman went into business someone named Berman, founding the Berman and Feinerman clothing manufacturing business. The business was located at 833 Broadway in Manhattan, and they produced suits and coats that were shatnez-free 

Feinerman would take his wares to different towns to sell them to G-d-fearing Yidden. He would stay with the Rabbonim in the towns, and learn with them. While on his sales journeys, he would try and get people to send their children to Torah Vodaath, or to other yeshivos in New York. 

When he was in Albany, he stayed with Rabbi David Rackman who hailed from five generations of rabbonim. When he came down to the city, he brought his son Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, and he put him up at the Feiner’s, a very good friend of his. Emmanuel went to yeshiva at TA and RIETS, and had a storied rabbinic career in New York.  

Rabbi Maurice Wohlgelernter wrote to the grandson of a Hartford businessman: “My late father-in-law, Louis Feinerman, a Talmudist and successful businessman was, you see, the first Jew in New York to manufacture men’s non-Shatness suits back in the twenties. He would then take the New Haven line each week to Hartford, among other cities along the way, to sell his all-woolen wares to none other than your grandfather, Ephraim Finkelstein, who, you recall with justifiable pride, kept his business going for sixty years and never opened it on Shabbos” 

R’ Eliezer suffered two heart attacks a few years apart on the same day, Shvii Shel Pesach, both times at the shul that he would daven in, Minyan Torah Vodaath. The second time, he was bedridden, and was niftar on the 4th of Teves of the year 1944. His levaya was in Torah Vodaath, and he was interred in Mount Zion Cemetery. 

Mrs. Feinerman was left with five children, one of whom, Judah, became a Rabbi. She valiantly carried on with life, and raised her children and grandchildren to be G-d-fearing Yidden who are a true credit to the legacy of their ancestor who pioneered selling non-shatnez clothing in New York of yore.