A Lasting Tribute to the Unconditional Love of Rabbi Moshe Neuman, zt”l By ShaBSie SaphirStein
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OctOber 29, 2015 | the Jewish Home
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he Queens community of today boasts an array of premier centers for Torah education for both boys and girls of all ages. In 1961, Rabbi Moshe Neuman, zt”l, sowed the budding landscape with the establishment of Bais Yaakov Academy of Queens (BYQ) in the community’s tender roots, instilling chinuch approaches in neighborhood girls for the next five decades. Walking through the doors of BYQ, one is hit with a unique and palpable warmth and energy. In every conversation discussing the lasting impact of Rabbi Neuman, one can easily grasp how his positivity, dedication, professionalism, and ruchniyus added to a balanced and forward-thinking path to education. Throughout the generations, as the bnos Yisrael advanced through high school and beyond, they were each given strong character development instilled through an integral method of teaching middos tovos. For 68 years, Rabbi Neuman and his eishes chayil, Rebbetzin Rivkah (Hollander), widely contributed to klal Yisrael as leaders and guides. While the Neuman family residence was in Boro Park, Rabbi Neuman had the special Queens pride that permeates the grid of Jewish neighborhoods. Like countless Queens families, the connection to
BYQ extends for generations. I saw firsthand the kindness of Rabbi Neuman in the education of my sister, Elisheva Saphirstein, in the ‘90s. My aunt, Mrs. Henshe (Saphirstein) Schonbrun, now of Madison, Flatbush, has the fondest memories, “Rabbi Neuman was the nicest elementary school menhael one could have ever had. Although we only met a handful of times since, I felt that attending his levayah was my duty.” Rebbetzin Rivkah, a longtime pre-1A teacher in Yeshiva Toras Emes Kaminetz of Brooklyn, lent her own mark in the Schonbrun family in the upbringing of my cousin Yehoshua. In 1977, together with fellow educator Mrs. Cheryle Knobel, Rebbetzin Rivkah created the widely popular “613 Torah Avenue” adventure series of audio and video albums starring Chaim, a boy that teaches youngsters about the parshah in a fun and humorous way.
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abbi Neuman, who passed away at the age of 91, designed the school faithful to the ideologies of the Sara Schneirer Bais Yaakov movement and in the eye of his rebbeim, Rav Yitzchak Hutner, zt”l, at
Photos courtesy of Mrs. ora Love and Judah s. harris
The Jewish Home | MAY 12, 2022
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Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin and Reb Mike Tress, zt”l. Early on, he began a career in chinuch first in Detroit at Bais Yehuda and later in Allentown at the Jewish Community Center Day School. In the ‘60s, as BYQ took root, awe-inspiring hurdles required great persistence and mesiras nefesh leading to the BYQ of today as a crown jewel of girls’ chinuch in Queens. Rabbi Neuman’s graduates dot the globe, disseminating the mesorah they absorbed. Rabbi Neuman, together with notable families including the Rosenbergs, Sukeniks, and Zimmers, and the rabbinic guidance of Rabbi Joseph Grunblatt zt”l, Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld zt”l, Rabbi Peretz Steinberg, shlit”a, and Rabbi Noach Isaac Oelbaum, shlit”a, brought in a new era of girls’ education. Today, the presidium of BYQ, Mr. Bernie Shafran, together with Dr. Meyer Halberstam, have taken on the school’s achrayus. Mr. Shafran’s father-in-law, Mr. Yankel Zimmer, z”l, was an early board member, and his wife, Chaya, along with her sisters, are proud graduates. Mrs. Marylin Zimmer has been zoche to witness several great-grandchildren continue the family legacy of attending BYQ. Upon hearing of Rabbi Neuman’s pe-
