The fourteenth of Iyar is the yahrzeit of Rav Tuviah Goldstein (1917-2003). Born in Waldwa, Poland, his parents passed away from typhus when he was two, and his grandfather, Rav Chaim Meir Goldstein, a shochet, and his wife raised Rav Tuvia. Showing leadership as a child he became the local head of Pirchei Agudas Yisroel and attended the local Novohrdok yeshiva. When he turned sixteen he went to Baranovich and developed a close relationship with Rav Elchonon Wasserman, Hy”d, and even spent Pesach in his home. When Rav Shmuel Berenbaum came to Baranovich as a young bachur, it was Rav Tuvia who took him under his wing.
When Rav Tuvia would return home from yeshiva he would frequently stop in Brisk to speak with Rav Simcha Zelig Rigler, the Dayan of Brisk, who even included the young bachur on his bais din. In 1937 he went to Kaminetz and was very beloved by Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz. Rav Tuvia absorbed his derech in learning and by extension the derech of Rav Chaim Brisker.
Rav Tuvia spent most of the war years in Siberia, where he was in a labor camp with forty other bachurim. He was threatened with execution when he wouldn’t work on Shabbos, but he managed to convince a visiting officer from Moscow to allow the bachurim to have the day off. From then on the camp director treated them respectfully as he feared what he perceived as their Moscow connections. They even built a sukkah and sat in it despite the sub-zero temperatures.
He married soon after the war ended. He and his wife arrived in the United States in 1947 and Rebbitzen Sima Feinstein arranged for them an apartment in her building. Rav Tuvia and Rav Moshe developed a close friendship, and Rav Moshe would often consult with Rav Tuvia before writing a teshuva. Rav Tuvia taught at Yeshiva Rabbi Jacob Joseph for many years before moving to Boro Park and opening Yeshiva Emek Halacha. His goal was to train rabbonim in how to be lamdanim and poskim.
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The 17th of Iyar is the yahrzeit of Chacham Mordechai “Murray” Maslaton (1939-2014). Born in Brooklyn, he learned in Yeshiva Toras Emes and later in Telshe and Vineland. At the age of seventeen he decided to dedicate his life to teaching Torah and a few years later went to Eretz Yisroel to learn in Yeshiva Porat Yosef and drew close to Rav Ezra Attia. In 1963 he married Susie Cohen, who had been born in Egypt, and they moved to Baltimore where he learned in Ner Israel.
Knowing that he was needed by the Sephardic community of Brooklyn, he returned there and spent the rest of his life building a Syrian Torah community. Many opposed his efforts and one time a brick was thrown through his front window by an opponent. He made many efforts to convince parents to send their children to Torah schools rather than public schools. He paid the most attention to orphans and widows, making himself available to them at any time of day or night. He would take the kids on trips, swimming, play board games with them, whatever was needed to create a connection.
His wife could be called on to whip up some food at three in the morning for some visitor who had just arrived. When certain yeshivos refused to accept students who had weak backgrounds, he refused to take no for an answer and fought until they relented. On more than one occasion Chacham Maslaton refused to leave the yeshiva, sometimes staying for days, until they would accept the bachur. When a school rejected a girl because “there was not another desk for her,” he purchased a desk matching those the school had already and sat her in it in the appropriate classroom.
He opened a shul and kollel called Emek HaTorah, but never took a salary. When the Persian community began to send children to the United States he housed many of them and took on the responsibility to see to it that they were able to attend yeshiva.
