Shlomo Wahrman
| Rabbi Shlomo Wahrman HaLevi | |
|---|---|
| Position | Rosh Yeshiva |
| Yeshiva | Hebrew Academy of Nassau County |
| Organization | Hebrew Academy of Nassau County |
| Began | 1969 |
| Ended | 2013 (retired from day-to-day teaching in 1999) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 1, 1926 Leipzig, Germany |
| Died |
July 31, 2013 Kew Gardens, Queens, New York |
| Buried | West Babylon, NY |
| Nationality | USA |
| Denomination | Orthodox |
| Residence | Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York |
| Parents | Yosef Wahrman, Rivka Wahrman |
| Spouse | Sarah Malka Herskovitz |
| Children | Chaim Dov, Jack, and Israel |
| Occupation | Rabbi, Teacher |
Rabbi Shlomo Wahrman (Hebrew: הרב שלמה הלוי וואהרמאן) was the Rosh HaYeshiva of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County and one of the leading Torah Scholars of his time, held in high esteem by the Torah World. As an eyewitness to Kristallnacht and a Torah luminary with an all encompassing knowledge of the breadth and depth of Torah scholarship, he made a tremendous impression on the hundreds of students whom he taught over his thirty years as a Rebbe and Rosh Yeshiva at HANC. He authored thirteen books and hundreds of articles on matters related to Jewish law, Talmudic analysis, and Jewish history.
Rabbi Shlomo Wahrman was born and grew up in Leipzig, Germany. In 1939, at the age of twelve, he and his Polish-born parents and his siblings received American visas and found peace and a life of relative safety away from the clutches of the Nazi regime.
In Lest We Forget: Growing up in Nazi Leipzig 1933-1939, published in 1991 by ArtScroll Mesorah Publications, Rabbi Wahrman shares an account of life in Leipzig in the 1930s, portraying the impact of Nazi policies on a thriving Jewish community that peaked at 18,000 in 1935 before declining to around 6,000 in 1939, when Rabbi Wahrman left the city for New York.
Rabbi Wahrman concludes his book with the following words:
"All these events have delivered a powerful message to me. Any Jewish city anywhere could potentially suffer Leipzig’s fate, chas v’shalom. There is no safety and security for us in galus, even in a democracy. The German Weimar Republic was a democracy, yet it could not prevent the emergence of a Hitler. When the anti-Semites so decreed, Leipzig, a city of 18,000 Jews, became Judenrein."
Soon after arriving in New York, Rabbi Wahrman's family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he grew close to the legendary Rabbi Eliezer Silver zt"l, whom he considered his rebbi muvhak. Due to Rabbi Silver’s insistence and encouragement, Rabbi Wahrman honed his writing skills and recorded his copious chidushei Torah. In the short biography of Rabbi Silver that he published, he writes:
I remember at times he screamed at me for lack of understanding--however, even then I sensed his great love and concern for me and not the slightest hint of hatred. Rabbi Silver was a man whose very essence was giving to others--his ahavas yisroel (love for his fellow Jew) knew no bounds…he saw every Jew as an extension of himself.
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