2008 Woodie Awards
"Mr. Yeshiva" ALMOST Always Kept His Hat On
Efraim Zuroff
Issue date: 3/29/05 Section: YUdaica
It would be hard to imagine a more dramatic departure. Standing in front of the aron kodesh, facing a packed beit midrash as the presiding officer at the 1962/5722 Chag Ha-Semikha to mark the ordination of thirty new RIETS musmakhim, Dean Samuel L. Sar introduced Yeshiva President Samuel Belkin and promptly dropped dead of a heart attack.
This type of drama was hardly the sort which Dean Sar, probably the penultimate Litvak among many landsmen at Yeshiva, would have chosen had he been able to orchestrate a proper farewell from the institution to which he devoted practically his entire adult life. A no-nonsense Litvak, who eschewed theatrics and empty gestures, he never would have even imagined such a scenario, let alone arranged the star role for himself. On the other hand, his dramatic exit proved almost prophetic. Asked once by Dr. Belkin when he planned to retire from his positions as Yeshiva College Dean of Men and Professor of Bible, having reached the age of 67, and having suffered a severe heart attack, Sar replied, according to one version, that he would not leave voluntarily and "would have to be taken out on a stretcher."
The inner contradictions of the multi-faceted life of Shmuel Leib (Samuel) Sar, who combined Eastern European Torah scholarship with a love of Tanakh and the Hebrew language, a penchant for academia with a life-long career in administration, an appreciation for the advantages of America with a passionate commitment to religious Zionism and the welfare of the State of Israel, and a concern for his own family with an overriding sense of obligation and responsibility for the greater good of Klal Yisrael which forced him to travel overseas for lengthy periods to Jewish communities all over the world, were obvious to those who played leading role in creating Yeshiva University and shared his vision for Yeshiva and modern Orthodoxy in America.
This was, for example, the main theme of the impassioned eulogy which R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik delivered at Dean Sar's funeral held in Lamport auditorium the day after his demise. The Rav spoke about the dichotomy between the kree (the text read out loud) and the ktiv (the written text) of a Sefer Torah, which represent a person's exterior, his visual public image (kree) and his emotions, thoughts and internal essence (ktiv). In the case of Dean Sar, there was a chasm between his image and his true interior, which marked his greatness but also had a tragic dimension. The Rav likened Dean Sar to the story of the Book of Ruth which he said was full of contradictions since it lacked any halakhic directives but was included nonetheless in the Tanakh because of its preoccupation, from beginning to end, with chesed, deeds of human kindness. So too Dean Sar ostensibly presented a detached, somewhat cynical exterior, but was in fact a person who was imbued with a deep love for the students, someone who had literally helped thousands of students and enabled them to continue and complete their educations, and did so in secret (the highest form of charity). But besides that, Dean Sar was also creative and imaginative innovator who applied his numerous talents and natural charisma for the good of the Jewish people rather than for his own personal gain, a person who was always striving to improve and to achieve, a person who as the Rav phrased it, "had the strength not to be smug or self-satisfied." And it was those wonderful characteristics of his ostensibly complicated personality that the Rav said he would miss so much.
Shmuel Leib Sar (Zar) was born on Shushan Purim 1893 in Ligmiany, which at the time was part of the Czarist empire, but after World War I straddled the Polish-Lithuanian border, and became famous as the place where Jews from Poland and Lithuania (which for many years after World War I did not maintain diplomatic relations or permit border crossings) were allowed to meet one day a year - on Tisha B'Av. He was the oldest of six boys, who subsequently scattered all over the world (USA, Scotland, South Africa (2), Eretz Yisrael), with the exception of his youngest brother Efraim, a well-known iluy who learned with the Chafetz Chaim in Radin and ultimately became a rosh yeshiva at one of the yeshivot of the Novardok network in eastern Poland. Efraim and his wife Beyla and two sons Hirsch and Eliyahu were murdered in Vilna, to which they escaped together with his yeshiva shortly after the invasion of Poland. Dean Sar was able to help obtain entry permits to Shanghai for the family in mid-May 1941, but they were never utilized due to the Nazi invasion of Lithuania on June 22, 1941.
As a young child, Shmuel Leib was sent to learn in the nearly yeshiva at Vidz, from which he moved on to Ponevezh and later to a branch of Telz at Shaduva, where he learned for more than five years with R. Yosef Bloch, son-in-law of the noted R. Eliezer Gordon. Sar received semikha and then set out on a relatively unique journey, which ultimately led him to his life's work. During the decade prior to World War I, R. Mayer Tzvi Jung sought Lithuanian-trained yeshiva students to prepare them to serve as rabbis for communities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Shmuel Sar was one of the students whom Jung sent to Vienna to pursue a rigorous program which combined a morning of learning Yoreh Deah with an afternoon devoted to secular studies. He later followed Jung to London, when the latter was appointed Chief Rabbi, but ultimately chose to immigrate to the United States, arriving in Baltimore in 1914. Shmuel Sar's first job was as superintendent of a network of Talmud Torahs, where despite strong opposition, he introduced Talmud as part of the curriculum. Simultaneously, he undertook undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University and Mount Vernon Collegiate Institute and began law school at the University of Maryland, where he studied with Prof. Albert Ritchie, who later was elected governor of the state.
In 1919 he was invited by Dr. Revel to join the staff of the Yeshiva as secretary of the administration and Talmud instructor. In reality, however, Sar became a central figure in the institution shortly after his arrival due in part to the fact that at this point Dr. Revel was forced to spend most of the year in Tulsa attending to family business. Sar became his main advisor and confidant and was Dr. Revel's "eyes and ears" at the Yeshiva in his absence. In effect, he stepped into the void and within a short time assumed the multiple tasks of: officer manager, director of fundraising, and head of public relations, besides being in charge of the placement of rabbis and Hebrew teachers.
Shmuel Sar brought considerable wit, diplomacy, and negotiating skills to these daunting tasks which he fulfilled with a great sense of commitment and devotion. These were hard times for the Yeshiva which faced serious financial difficulties, which were compounded by the establishment of Yeshiva College in 1928, the Depression, and the growing needs of an expanding student body. Time and again, he had to marshal all his numerous talents to provide imaginative solutions for a plethora of complicated problems facing the institution and its students. In that respect, he became Yeshiva's ultimate problem solver, or as he was described in Gilbert Klaperman's The Story of Yeshiva University:
"With a calm and deliberate manner, Mr. Sar was always in charge of the situation. In his mind, he carried thousands of names and addresses of people he had never met but who had made a contribution to the Yeshiva; he never forgot a name, a face, an occupation, or a joke. He was a diplomat, a tactician, and a skilled negotiator."
Following Dr. Revel's untimely demise and the ascension of Dr. Belkin to the presidency, Sar was appointed Dean of Men, a position which reflected his multiple tasks on behalf of the student body which officially included placement of chaplains and distributing weekly stipends. In practice he was THE address for any problem and considered it his responsibility to take as good care of them as possible, from shidduchim to job placement to educating them about the importance of Torah, Am Yisrael, and Eretz Yisrael. In addition, he continued teaching his beloved Mishlei (Proverbs) to generation after generation of yeshiva students. It was thus only natural, that Dr. Belkin, in his eulogy for Dean Sar, gave him the ultimate compliment by referring to him as "Mr. Yeshiva."
Besides his devotion to Torah learning and Jewish education, Dean Sar was passionately committed to the welfare of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael. In his opinion, the highest level of Avodat Hashem could only be reached by active service on behalf of his fellow Jews. Thus he was active on behalf of communal organizations such as the Joint Distribution Committee (serving on its Cultural Committee), and the United Jewish Appeal, and as a leader of the Mizrachi was involved both on the local and international scene. Probably the most important initiatives in this regard were his three lengthy overseas trips, the first two to Europe to assist the remnants of European Jewry and the third to Latin America to help stimulate a renewal of Jewish education and communal life.
In fall 1945, Dean Sar was sent on behalf of the American Jewish Conference (an umbrella organization of sixty American Jewish organizations established in 1943) to Europe to visit the Displaced Persons camps in Germany and present a survey of the situation of the Jewish Holocaust survivors, as well as recommendations how best to provide for their immediate needs. Together with Major Alfred Flieschman and Hans Lamm, they served as liaisons between the survivors and UNRRA, as part of the efforts of American Jewry to assist the survivors.
In 1948, Dean Sar returned to Europe, this time as director of the Central Orthodox Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee which was established in 1947 to unify American Jewry's efforts to care for the religious needs of the Orthodox survivors in Europe. Its mission was to provide kosher food, religious articles, religious education and qualified personnel for the numerous Orthodox survivors and those requiring such services. Undoubtedly, one of its crowning achievements was the printing by the United States Army of a complete Talmud (often referred to as Shas Munchen after the site of its printing), which both on a practical and symbolic level was a source of tremendous pride to the survivors and those American Jews involved in the efforts to assist them.
A lifelong religious Zionist, Dean Sar was one of the leaders of the Mizrachi both in the United States and in world Jewish bodies. He served as Acting President, Chairman of the Vaad Hapoel of American Mizrachi and represented the movement in the Merkaz Olami (world center). He also played an important role in the creation of Bar-Ilan University in Israel together with his good friend Dr. Pinkhas Churgin. Dean Sar visited Eretz Yisrael seven times and in 1950 was offered the post as director-general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs by the Minister Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon. Dean Sar turned down the offer for a combination of technical and family reasons, as well as his refusal to leave Yeshiva. Nonetheless, he always stressed the centrality of Israel in Jewish life and it is therefore no coincidence that half his grandchildren and more than half of his great-grandchildren are living in Israel today, while quite a few of the others are contemplating aliyah.
Perhaps the best indication of Dean Sar's devotion to Yeshiva was the fact that his children continued in his footsteps and worked at Yeshiva for their entire lives. His son Dr. Eli Sar was director of medical services at Yeshiva College and Stern College for close to fifty years, his daughter Esther Zuroff was Director of Student Services at Stern College for three decades and his son-in-law Rabbi Dr. Abraham Zuroff was the supervisor of all four Yeshiva high schools and the principal of YUHSB for thirty years, and later served for an additional thirteen years as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and academic advisor to all incoming students at Yeshiva College. In all, the Sar-Zuroff family has collectively served Yeshiva for more than one hundred and sixty years, a tradition which continues with great-grandson Aaron Koller, who currently teaches Bible at YC.
It was known that Dean Sar very rarely removed his hat, since he was always on the go, constantly on his way from solving yesterday's problem to averting tomorrow's crisis. Possessing a cynical, humorous, penetrating, and refreshingly candid personality, he would often note that his name, spelled in Hebrew zayin, reish had a number of possible variations. Did it mean stranger or foreigner or perhaps a wreath of glory or victory, or did it refer to the tyrannical Czar? Such musings were typical of Dean Sar, a person full of ostensible contradictions, and in that regard a quintessential modern Orthodox Jew, whose vision, talent, devotion, and charisma helped create Yeshiva University.
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, YUHS '66, YC '70, is the director of the Israel Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Center's chief Nazi-hunter. Over the past 25 years, he has achieved world renown for his efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice all over the world. The author of two books and over 180 articles (translated into 14 languages) regarding the Holocaust and its contemporary implications, Zuroff's pioneer study of the Vaad ha-Hatzala, "The Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust; The Activities of the Vaad ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee 1939-1945" was awarded the Samuel Belkin Literary Award in 2000. He is Dean Sar's eldest grandson and the father of four of his ten great-grandchildren.
This type of drama was hardly the sort which Dean Sar, probably the penultimate Litvak among many landsmen at Yeshiva, would have chosen had he been able to orchestrate a proper farewell from the institution to which he devoted practically his entire adult life. A no-nonsense Litvak, who eschewed theatrics and empty gestures, he never would have even imagined such a scenario, let alone arranged the star role for himself. On the other hand, his dramatic exit proved almost prophetic. Asked once by Dr. Belkin when he planned to retire from his positions as Yeshiva College Dean of Men and Professor of Bible, having reached the age of 67, and having suffered a severe heart attack, Sar replied, according to one version, that he would not leave voluntarily and "would have to be taken out on a stretcher."
The inner contradictions of the multi-faceted life of Shmuel Leib (Samuel) Sar, who combined Eastern European Torah scholarship with a love of Tanakh and the Hebrew language, a penchant for academia with a life-long career in administration, an appreciation for the advantages of America with a passionate commitment to religious Zionism and the welfare of the State of Israel, and a concern for his own family with an overriding sense of obligation and responsibility for the greater good of Klal Yisrael which forced him to travel overseas for lengthy periods to Jewish communities all over the world, were obvious to those who played leading role in creating Yeshiva University and shared his vision for Yeshiva and modern Orthodoxy in America.
This was, for example, the main theme of the impassioned eulogy which R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik delivered at Dean Sar's funeral held in Lamport auditorium the day after his demise. The Rav spoke about the dichotomy between the kree (the text read out loud) and the ktiv (the written text) of a Sefer Torah, which represent a person's exterior, his visual public image (kree) and his emotions, thoughts and internal essence (ktiv). In the case of Dean Sar, there was a chasm between his image and his true interior, which marked his greatness but also had a tragic dimension. The Rav likened Dean Sar to the story of the Book of Ruth which he said was full of contradictions since it lacked any halakhic directives but was included nonetheless in the Tanakh because of its preoccupation, from beginning to end, with chesed, deeds of human kindness. So too Dean Sar ostensibly presented a detached, somewhat cynical exterior, but was in fact a person who was imbued with a deep love for the students, someone who had literally helped thousands of students and enabled them to continue and complete their educations, and did so in secret (the highest form of charity). But besides that, Dean Sar was also creative and imaginative innovator who applied his numerous talents and natural charisma for the good of the Jewish people rather than for his own personal gain, a person who was always striving to improve and to achieve, a person who as the Rav phrased it, "had the strength not to be smug or self-satisfied." And it was those wonderful characteristics of his ostensibly complicated personality that the Rav said he would miss so much.
Shmuel Leib Sar (Zar) was born on Shushan Purim 1893 in Ligmiany, which at the time was part of the Czarist empire, but after World War I straddled the Polish-Lithuanian border, and became famous as the place where Jews from Poland and Lithuania (which for many years after World War I did not maintain diplomatic relations or permit border crossings) were allowed to meet one day a year - on Tisha B'Av. He was the oldest of six boys, who subsequently scattered all over the world (USA, Scotland, South Africa (2), Eretz Yisrael), with the exception of his youngest brother Efraim, a well-known iluy who learned with the Chafetz Chaim in Radin and ultimately became a rosh yeshiva at one of the yeshivot of the Novardok network in eastern Poland. Efraim and his wife Beyla and two sons Hirsch and Eliyahu were murdered in Vilna, to which they escaped together with his yeshiva shortly after the invasion of Poland. Dean Sar was able to help obtain entry permits to Shanghai for the family in mid-May 1941, but they were never utilized due to the Nazi invasion of Lithuania on June 22, 1941.
As a young child, Shmuel Leib was sent to learn in the nearly yeshiva at Vidz, from which he moved on to Ponevezh and later to a branch of Telz at Shaduva, where he learned for more than five years with R. Yosef Bloch, son-in-law of the noted R. Eliezer Gordon. Sar received semikha and then set out on a relatively unique journey, which ultimately led him to his life's work. During the decade prior to World War I, R. Mayer Tzvi Jung sought Lithuanian-trained yeshiva students to prepare them to serve as rabbis for communities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Shmuel Sar was one of the students whom Jung sent to Vienna to pursue a rigorous program which combined a morning of learning Yoreh Deah with an afternoon devoted to secular studies. He later followed Jung to London, when the latter was appointed Chief Rabbi, but ultimately chose to immigrate to the United States, arriving in Baltimore in 1914. Shmuel Sar's first job was as superintendent of a network of Talmud Torahs, where despite strong opposition, he introduced Talmud as part of the curriculum. Simultaneously, he undertook undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University and Mount Vernon Collegiate Institute and began law school at the University of Maryland, where he studied with Prof. Albert Ritchie, who later was elected governor of the state.
In 1919 he was invited by Dr. Revel to join the staff of the Yeshiva as secretary of the administration and Talmud instructor. In reality, however, Sar became a central figure in the institution shortly after his arrival due in part to the fact that at this point Dr. Revel was forced to spend most of the year in Tulsa attending to family business. Sar became his main advisor and confidant and was Dr. Revel's "eyes and ears" at the Yeshiva in his absence. In effect, he stepped into the void and within a short time assumed the multiple tasks of: officer manager, director of fundraising, and head of public relations, besides being in charge of the placement of rabbis and Hebrew teachers.
Shmuel Sar brought considerable wit, diplomacy, and negotiating skills to these daunting tasks which he fulfilled with a great sense of commitment and devotion. These were hard times for the Yeshiva which faced serious financial difficulties, which were compounded by the establishment of Yeshiva College in 1928, the Depression, and the growing needs of an expanding student body. Time and again, he had to marshal all his numerous talents to provide imaginative solutions for a plethora of complicated problems facing the institution and its students. In that respect, he became Yeshiva's ultimate problem solver, or as he was described in Gilbert Klaperman's The Story of Yeshiva University:
"With a calm and deliberate manner, Mr. Sar was always in charge of the situation. In his mind, he carried thousands of names and addresses of people he had never met but who had made a contribution to the Yeshiva; he never forgot a name, a face, an occupation, or a joke. He was a diplomat, a tactician, and a skilled negotiator."
Following Dr. Revel's untimely demise and the ascension of Dr. Belkin to the presidency, Sar was appointed Dean of Men, a position which reflected his multiple tasks on behalf of the student body which officially included placement of chaplains and distributing weekly stipends. In practice he was THE address for any problem and considered it his responsibility to take as good care of them as possible, from shidduchim to job placement to educating them about the importance of Torah, Am Yisrael, and Eretz Yisrael. In addition, he continued teaching his beloved Mishlei (Proverbs) to generation after generation of yeshiva students. It was thus only natural, that Dr. Belkin, in his eulogy for Dean Sar, gave him the ultimate compliment by referring to him as "Mr. Yeshiva."
Besides his devotion to Torah learning and Jewish education, Dean Sar was passionately committed to the welfare of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael. In his opinion, the highest level of Avodat Hashem could only be reached by active service on behalf of his fellow Jews. Thus he was active on behalf of communal organizations such as the Joint Distribution Committee (serving on its Cultural Committee), and the United Jewish Appeal, and as a leader of the Mizrachi was involved both on the local and international scene. Probably the most important initiatives in this regard were his three lengthy overseas trips, the first two to Europe to assist the remnants of European Jewry and the third to Latin America to help stimulate a renewal of Jewish education and communal life.
In fall 1945, Dean Sar was sent on behalf of the American Jewish Conference (an umbrella organization of sixty American Jewish organizations established in 1943) to Europe to visit the Displaced Persons camps in Germany and present a survey of the situation of the Jewish Holocaust survivors, as well as recommendations how best to provide for their immediate needs. Together with Major Alfred Flieschman and Hans Lamm, they served as liaisons between the survivors and UNRRA, as part of the efforts of American Jewry to assist the survivors.
In 1948, Dean Sar returned to Europe, this time as director of the Central Orthodox Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee which was established in 1947 to unify American Jewry's efforts to care for the religious needs of the Orthodox survivors in Europe. Its mission was to provide kosher food, religious articles, religious education and qualified personnel for the numerous Orthodox survivors and those requiring such services. Undoubtedly, one of its crowning achievements was the printing by the United States Army of a complete Talmud (often referred to as Shas Munchen after the site of its printing), which both on a practical and symbolic level was a source of tremendous pride to the survivors and those American Jews involved in the efforts to assist them.
A lifelong religious Zionist, Dean Sar was one of the leaders of the Mizrachi both in the United States and in world Jewish bodies. He served as Acting President, Chairman of the Vaad Hapoel of American Mizrachi and represented the movement in the Merkaz Olami (world center). He also played an important role in the creation of Bar-Ilan University in Israel together with his good friend Dr. Pinkhas Churgin. Dean Sar visited Eretz Yisrael seven times and in 1950 was offered the post as director-general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs by the Minister Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon. Dean Sar turned down the offer for a combination of technical and family reasons, as well as his refusal to leave Yeshiva. Nonetheless, he always stressed the centrality of Israel in Jewish life and it is therefore no coincidence that half his grandchildren and more than half of his great-grandchildren are living in Israel today, while quite a few of the others are contemplating aliyah.
Perhaps the best indication of Dean Sar's devotion to Yeshiva was the fact that his children continued in his footsteps and worked at Yeshiva for their entire lives. His son Dr. Eli Sar was director of medical services at Yeshiva College and Stern College for close to fifty years, his daughter Esther Zuroff was Director of Student Services at Stern College for three decades and his son-in-law Rabbi Dr. Abraham Zuroff was the supervisor of all four Yeshiva high schools and the principal of YUHSB for thirty years, and later served for an additional thirteen years as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and academic advisor to all incoming students at Yeshiva College. In all, the Sar-Zuroff family has collectively served Yeshiva for more than one hundred and sixty years, a tradition which continues with great-grandson Aaron Koller, who currently teaches Bible at YC.
It was known that Dean Sar very rarely removed his hat, since he was always on the go, constantly on his way from solving yesterday's problem to averting tomorrow's crisis. Possessing a cynical, humorous, penetrating, and refreshingly candid personality, he would often note that his name, spelled in Hebrew zayin, reish had a number of possible variations. Did it mean stranger or foreigner or perhaps a wreath of glory or victory, or did it refer to the tyrannical Czar? Such musings were typical of Dean Sar, a person full of ostensible contradictions, and in that regard a quintessential modern Orthodox Jew, whose vision, talent, devotion, and charisma helped create Yeshiva University.
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, YUHS '66, YC '70, is the director of the Israel Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Center's chief Nazi-hunter. Over the past 25 years, he has achieved world renown for his efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice all over the world. The author of two books and over 180 articles (translated into 14 languages) regarding the Holocaust and its contemporary implications, Zuroff's pioneer study of the Vaad ha-Hatzala, "The Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust; The Activities of the Vaad ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee 1939-1945" was awarded the Samuel Belkin Literary Award in 2000. He is Dean Sar's eldest grandson and the father of four of his ten great-grandchildren.