My father Rabbi Sholom Klass was the founder and Publisher of The Jewish Press. As his yahrzeit is next week, I’m happy to contribute something about him to Word Prompt. He was a Torah Scholar who spent his day, every day, learning Gemara until 3 p.m. in his home study. Only after that did he set out for his office at The Jewish Press.
I remember the early days, before The Jewish Press came into existence. Parnassah didn’t come easily in those days. Many nights he didn’t come home. His brothers and brother-in-law were dedicated to him, working alongside him. My father supported his parents, who lived with us. In fact, my Aunt Rivie and Uncle Harry, my Uncle Labie, my Zadie (mother’s father) and my Aunt Sylvia, all lived with us. Today I realize what an extraordinary thing that was.
On Shabbos, everything was transformed. No business talk. My father would tell my sister and me wonderful stories from the Talmud about the great rabbis of the past. That eventually became the Tales of the Gaonim, a feature in the paper. Shabbos was the best day of the week for us. In later years he told those stories to his grandchildren. He got a lot of nachas from them.
My father was also my rabbi, and judging from all the questions he answered through The Jewish Press, he was probably the rabbi for many others too. When he died in the year 2000, I remember telling my sister, we didn’t just lose Daddy, we lost our rabbi.
Daddy, we miss you – me and Hindy, and all of our children. May your neshama have an aliyah.