Zaidie was always looking out for our best interest. I remember when I was in 11th grade in Israel Zaidie asked me if I knew how to type. (This was before personal computers, and he meant on a typewriter). When I said I did not, he told me he thought it was something that was important to know. I immediately signed up for a typing course, which made Zaidie proud.
Bubbie and Zaidie were a team. I can’t remember Zaidie doing anything without Bubbie at his side. He discussed everything with her and he valued her opinion. Together they made my shidduch. I will always be very grateful for that.
Zaidie was the sandek at my second son’s bris. It was such a zechus for us. Toward the end of Zaidie’s life he spent a Shabbos in the mountains with us. On Shabbos afternoon all he wanted to do was sit on the porch and learn, and we learned the parshah together.
If there was anything I needed, Zaidie was always there for me. I miss his guidance, which I knew was always Torah-based.
Zaidie stood up for what he believed was the right thing to do. He tried to help the pioneers in Israel as much as he could.
I am extremely thankful to Hashem that I had the opportunity to have a close relationship with Zaidie. I still hear him asking me a “voo shteit” when we discussed Torah.
Zaidie taught us by example the proper way to honor one’s parents and parents-in-law.
Bubbie and Zaidie were zocheh to have parents who lived long lives. Zaidie’s mother lived to be 99. As far back as I can remember, she lived with Zaidie‘s sister, Aunt Rivi. Zaidie paid for her care, which she needed 24/7, and went to visit her as often as he could. On occasion I would visit as well.
Bubbie’s father lived into his late 90s. Zaidie and Bubbie made him his own apartment upstairs in their home, where he lived until his passing. It was always a treat when I visited Bubbie and Zaidie and was able to also visit with Zaidie Raphael, my great-grandfather. This is how I was able to have a wonderful relationship not only with my grandparents but with my great-grandparents as well.
Zaidie felt a responsibility to family. Aside from having his father-in-law live in his home, Bubbie’s sister who never married lived in the attic. In this way all the children had a connection to Aunt Sylvia, of blessed memory, who otherwise would have been lonely with no family around her.
I have been blessed by Hashem to have the zechus to give a parshah shiur in my neighborhood on Shabbosim. I feel I am continuing in Zaidie’s footsteps and I hope he is proud of us.
May he be a mailitz yosher for all of Klal Yisrael.
Zevie Schwartz
We pray three times daily to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why do we do so? Our sages tell us that we seek to gain shelter in their merit. Can any of us really imagine what it would be like to grow up in the house of our forefathers? What would that protection really feel like? Well, I for one, can. All I have to do is close my eyes and picture my childhood in the house of my grandfather Rabbi Sholom Klass, zt”l.
I remember when we used to go to the Homowack in the Catskills, and I would feel as though I were invincible because I was the grandson of Rabbi Sholom Klass. But this honor and this protection came with a price. The expectations for my siblings and me were higher. I remember that during the Nine Days my brother, my cousins, and I were all expected to make a siyum so that everyone in the hotel could eat meat, and between all of us we had the whole week covered. The outcome, however, was that as I got older, the siyumim and the learning stayed with me. I suppose Zaidie knew a thing or two about chinuch. Perhaps the seeds he planted were the same seeds Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov planted with their offspring, knowing that pushing your children and grandchildren to Torah will, if you’re fortunate enough, prevail.