The Genius Rabbi Menashe Frankel Z”L

The last rabbi of Lizhensk

On the 14th of Adar I 5725 (1965), 59 years ago, the heart of one of the great Holocaust survivor rabbis stopped. For some reason, he has been forgotten and his name is almost unknown, but his good deeds are recorded before the throne of honour, “for there is no forgetting before the throne of Your honour and there is nothing hidden from Your eyes.”

Rabbi Menashe Frankel was born in 5663 (1903) in Jadlowa, Galicia, between Debica and Tarnow to the genius and righteous Rabbi Shlomo Zalman, son of the known righteous man and miracle performer, Rabbi Avraham Frankel, the Rebbe of Wielopole. He was known as a prodigy in the kloiz (study house) of Reisha for six years in a row, until he was honored to be the groom of the daughter of the rabbi of the city of Lizhensk, Rabbi Yechezkel Landau z”l.

Rabbi Menashe Frankel z”l

Following his marriage, he lived in Lizhensk and served as a judge on the religious court. He was loved and admired not only by the six hundred members of the Lizhensk community, but also by the residents of 29 small communities that were considered the under the realm of Lizhensk.

His greatness in the Torah, his nobility, and his virtues caused Jews from all parts of the spectrum to be drawn to him like bees to nectar.

Even as a young man, during his long years sitting on the benches of the Reisha study house, Rabbi Menashe devoted much time to lofty acts of kindness. He would collect money every week and organize Shabbat needs for the poor, in addition to the fact that he would often visit the hospital in Reisha and spend a long time with the depressed.

In 5698 (1937), after years of being a judge and teacher, his father-in-law, the genius Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, passed away and Rabbi Menashe was crowned as the rabbi of Lizhensk.

He served as the rabbi of the city for only two years, carried on waves of admiration and appreciation, until black clouds darkened over Poland. Lizhensk, like all the cities around it, was one of the first cities to suffer.

On Rosh Hashana 5700 (1939), about two weeks after the outbreak of the war, Lizhensk was conquered and the synagogue was burnt down on the same day.

Rabbi Menashe fled to Bilgoraj because, as usual, they (the Germans) would deal with the rabbis first, but before Yom Kippur, he returned to his home in Lizhensk.

Between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, all the Jewish residents of Lizhensk were forced to gather on the banks of the San River and were transferred to the Russian side of the river.

The Russians, as it became known later, deported many of the refugees to Siberia, and thus Rabbi Menashe ended up in Siberia and suffered there for a long time until he arrived in Uzbekistan, Bukhara.

In Siberia, Rabbi Menashe dedicated his life to the Torah and to spreading Judaism. As a mohel (one who performs circumcisions), he traveled with devotion, in the full sense of the word, and circumsized hundreds of children. He would climb onto wagons carrying hay and hide among the stacks, and thus he would get from place to place. Sometimes the guards would get suspicious and stick a jagged bayonet into the piles, and more than once he was on the verge of life and death, but he never thought for a moment of stopping his actions.

In Bukhara, he served as a rabbi and prayer leader, and even Mizrachi Jews adored him and referred to him as “Chacham” (wise one – a title Mizrachi Jews use for their rabbis).

Postwar, Rabbi Menashe spent over two years in the displaced persons camps in Germany, where he worked in large and small groups together with his fellow rabbis, Rabbi Bentzion Fuhrer and Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ausibal (a former student of the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva). There is no comparison to what Rabbi Menashe did in those years in all areas of life and the difficulties that arose at that time. He organized kosher kitchens for Passover and for the whole year, stood up for many agunot (women who want to remarry, but their husbands are missing), and countless people benefited from his advice and resourcefulness during those difficult years.

In 5708 (1948), he arrived in New York. At first, he was appointed to serve as the rabbi of a synagogue on the Upper East Side, and later founded his community, “Ateret Shlomo,” named after his father.

In those years, he saved many teenagers from assimilation and directed them to a life of Torah and mitzvahs, and was an address for all matters of Torah and charity within the “Association of the Rabbis” in which he was a distinguished member.

In the year 5725 (1965), Purim Katan (the 14th of Adar I), his heart stopped and his soul returned to its Maker.