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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
The Jewish Home | JANUARY 14, 2021
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THE LOSS OF A GIANT
Rabbi Yehudah Kelemer, zt”l BY NAFTALI HALPERN
AT
twelve years old, Rabbi Yehudah Kelemer had a unique challenge. He was living in California with his parents, but, at the time, there were no high caliber yeshivas on the West Coast. His older brother, who was in YU at the time, agreed that the bright child belonged in a yeshiva on the East Coast. Young Yehudah knew that once he was on the East Coast, if he visited a yeshiva and wanted to learn there, his parents would consent to him learning there. But how would he get the money to travel cross-country, back then, in the early days of plane travel? The two boys came up with a simple plan. Well, maybe not so simple for anyone else, but simple for them. At the time, there was an international Chidon HaTanach competition for school-agestudents across the globe. This competition tested thousands of participants on their knowledge of Tanach. The winners of the competition were flown to New York for a ceremony. The brothers decided that young Yehudah would sign up for the competition and win it. This way, he would be able to get to New York. The plan worked. Twelve-year-old Yehudah won the competition and was flown to New York. Once he was on the East Coast, his older brother brought him to visit Ner Yisroel, and Yehudah decided to learn there, although his time there was short-lived. A few months later, he traveled to De-
troit for his bar mitzvah at his grandparents’ home. Over the weekend, a young gaon, Rabbi Avrohom Mordechai Isbee, took notice of Yehudah and convinced him to come to Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland, where he himself was learning. Yehudah agreed and went to Telz, where he was from the youngest students. When the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Mordechai Gifter, zt”l, gave a test to the
Rabbi Kelemer saw the soul, not the hair. younger shiur, he quickly realized that Yehudah was a gifted young man. “You belong in my shiur,” Rav Gifter said. And, with that, Yehudah was bumped up to the Rosh Yeshiva’s shiur. After six years in Telz, Rabbi Kelemer married the daughter of Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Walkin and went to Eretz Yisroel to learn in kollel in the Mir under Rav Nochum Partzovitz, zt”l, and Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, zt”l. Eventually, he made his way back to America and his career in rabbanus took off, with his first
major position being the rav in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1983, Rabbi Kelemer became the rav of the Young Israel of West Hempstead, where he tirelessly shepherded his kehilla until his untimely passing last week.
TO extol Rabbi Kelemer’s brilliance is not only antithetical to who he was – pious and humble – but it also does not do justice. Yes, he mastered every area of Torah. Yes, when all of his work was done for the day, he would spend hours learning. Yes, he even had a box of seforim on the front seat of his car so that he could learn while stopped at traffic lights. But that was all secondary to his ahavas Yisroel. For Rabbi Kelemer, caring about Yidden, sharing in the burden of others, opening his heart to others was the beginning, the end, and the middle. “Oftentimes, there are people who are all about middos tovos, who are totally devoted to other Jews, and there is no reason to consider whether they are smart or not because their level of intelligence is not relevant to how much they do for others,” explains Rabbi Kelemer’s son, R’ Yosky. “But my father used his brilliance to figure out ways to help people and to analyze every aspect of middos tovos.” Yosky recalls his father calling him late one night from a pay phone. Rabbi Kelemer explained that he was in Penn Station and lost his cellphone.
