Rabbi Moshe Yitzchok Shulman
משה יצחק ב"ר אליהו גבריאל הלוי
Menahel, Yeshiva Etz Chaim, Brooklyn, New YorkDate of Death:
Tue. February 16, 1965 -
Adar I 14 5725
Purim Katan
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Directions to Kever: The Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York maintains detailed burial records and will provide assistance upon request. Location: Section: 5, (near 19th Ave) along Fern Avenue corner Magnolia, Row: A
Name Listed on Cemetery Database: Name listed on marker: Rabbi Mosses Isaac Shulman
Biographical Notes:
Photo Caption: Graduation certificate, Credit: Ivelt
Credit: Asher Lowy, Brooklyn, NY
Credit: Asher Lowy, Brooklyn, NY
Credit: Asher Lowy, Brooklyn, NY
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You can hear a recording of Rabbi Shulman speaking in Yiddish on the radio over sixty years ago, representing Yeshiva Etz Chaim of Borough Park, at http://www.yutorah.org/sidebar/lecture.cfm/846996/rabbi-nisson-shulman/etz-chaim-yeshiva-of-boro-park-rabbi-moshe-i-shulman-wevd-1955-father-of-rabbi-nisson-shulman-/
Rabbi Moshe Yitzchok Shulman z”l, Biography
Excerpted from biography written by his son Rabbi Nisson E. Shulman
Rav Moshe Yitzchok Shulman z”l died on Purim Katan, 1965, 74 years after he was born, also on Purim. ומספר ימיך אמלא.
He taught Torah for over 50 years; 25 years as Principle of the Hebrew Department of Etz Chaim Yeshiva,(The Hebrw Institute of Boro Park), and over 25 years in other institutions: In Philadelphia, Coney Island, East Bronx.
He was born in Minsk in 1891, and came to America at the age of 20.
His parents died young. His grandmother wanted to raise him, but for fear of possible conscription into the Russian army, they looked for, and found, a childless family who would officially adopt him. His grandmother then took over and raised him in her home. He later kept the name of the adopting family, “Shulman” instead of his original name which was Horowitz.
He studied in the Slabodke Yeshiva and remained a lifelong friend of Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky. Even when in Slabodke he studied Russian literature in his spare time, and especially Hebrew Literature. In fact, he won a nationwide prize for a Hebrew essay that he wrote at that time. Great praise for his unusual learning, ability and scholarship were later offered by Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik and Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik among others.
He came to America in1911 on the “SS Amerika” out of Hamburg. On the way he visited an uncle in Germany, (Leon) Aharon Yehudah Leib Horowitz (called איל”ה). The uncle told him that unfortunately his own children were on the way to assimilation and would have no use for scholarly books. He had one book of importance and asked my father to take it with him, for he would surely have use for it. It was certainly of great use through the years. It was the “Basel Concordance”, printed in 1623.
When he came to America, he taught in “Mishkan Yisrael” under Rabbi Yoseph Grossman of Philadelphia. In 1914 he went to New York, studied for a time in Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary later to become Yeshiva University. He was one of the first students there to request that they offer English classes too. In this way he perfected his English. By 1917 he also had smicha in New York from the Dayan of Brownsville, Rabbi Shay Halevi Finkelstein. In 1919 he naturalized as a US citizen.
He graduated Brooklyn Law School, passed the New York Bar Examination, but never intended to practice law since by that time he was fully committed to Chinuch. He served as Rabbi and Hebrew school principal in Lynn, Massachusetts, Coney Island, East Bronx, and finally in the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Boro Park.
He married Rose Ruth Port in 1923. They had two children, Jacob Elihu (Yankee) Shulman, and Rabbi Nisson E. Shulman.