On his 13th yahrtzeit this 17 Adar, a tribute to the indefatigable Reb Eli Teitelbaum
Photos: Family archives
It was the 1960s, and Eli Teitelbaum was just a bochur when his star began to rise. The son of a rabbi from Kew Gardens, Queens, Eli was short, focused, a powerhouse of energy, and determined to channel his talents, charisma, and easy rapport with children into Klal Yisrael’s future: the youth.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that he was one of the Founding Fathers of American Yiddishkeit in the 1960’s or that there was no yeshivah boy in Brooklyn who did not know Eli Teitelbaum’s name,” says Rabbi Shimon Grama, former National Director of Pirchei Agudas Yisrael.