Rabbi Shmuel Leib Yallow
שמואל ליב ב"ר ישראל משה
Rav, Syracuse, New YorkDate of Death:
Thu. August 29, 1974 -
Elul 11 5734
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Directions to Kever: Jamesville Avenue Cemeteries is made up of smaller cemeteries. Among them are, Achim Cemetery (T:315-466-9111, Anshe Sfard Cemetery / Poiley Tzedek Cemetery (T: 315-446-5858), Workman's Circle Cemetery (T: 315-472-6341), a little further down the road, Chevra Shas Cemetery / Congregation Beth Sholom Cemetery (T: 315-446-9570, Location: Chevra Shas Cemetery
Biographical Notes:
Source: Jewish Community of Syracuse, Barbara Sheklin Davis, Susan B. Rabin
Source: Syracuse Journal, July 18, 1929
Credit: Needed
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Rabbi Shmuel Yallow’s daughter-in-law Rosalyn Yalow would be a co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Medicine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalyn_Sussman_Yalow
You can see some information about Rabbi Yallow in a book about Rosalyn Yalow starting here
https://archive.org/details/rosalynyalownobe00stra_0/page/49/mode/1up
On the next page you can see a picture of Rabbi Yallow with his son Aaron.
I will tell a story that occured to me several years ago. I grew up in Syracuse in the 50’s and 60’s. My family attended Ahavas Achim and later on Young Israel. I have lived in Israel for almost 28 years. In 2012 I lived in Meitar, Israel. One morning on my way back from shul I was thinking of Rav Yallow z”l, but I couldn’t remember the name of the sefer that he had written. My lapse of memory bothered me very much. That evening as I was working with a law office located in New York I answered my New York telephone number. The fellow on the line heard me say, this is Joel Reback speaking. He said he was calling another attorney in the office but then added that I was speaking with a Syracuse accent. I admitted that I was from Syracuse. He asked if I knew Rav Yallow z”l. I confirmed that I knew him and that as a young child I grew up in his shul. I mentioned that I remembered him and Rebetzin Esther Yallow z”l very well. He asked me if I remembered the name of Rav Yallow’s famous sefer. Without thinking I immediately answered “Minchas Shmuel”. חג כשר ושמח, פסח תשפ”ב.
One addition, it is now motzei chag in Israel, not 2:38 in the afternoon.
Although it may be April 16, 2:38 p.m. in Syracuse, it is motzie Chag in Israel.
I remember Rabbi Yalow. In his old age after he suffered a stroke which left him blind, he lived in Boro Park with a daughter. He would come to Rav Paler’s Yeshiva and learn with a chavrusa (by heart). If they needed to look something up, he would tell his Chavrusa to take out a Gemorah from the shelf and turn to page such and such. He would then feel the page and tell his Chavrusa to read from the line he was pointing at!
I forgot to mention: There are quite a few Teshuvos addressed to him in Igros Moshe.
IIRC in his younger years, pre-Syracuse, he was Rav in Ansonia, CT.
Eli: Thanks for the information re R. Yallow z”l learning at Yeshiva Mekor Chaim.
His son-in-law, R. Israel D. Lerner z”l, lived nearby, so that fits.
The book calls Rabbi Yalow the Chief Rabbi of Syracuse. That’s incorrect. There was no such title or position in Syracuse or for that matter in any American Jewish community. That was not and is not the way American Jewish communities are organized. I grew up in Syracuse when Rabbi Yalow was at the peak of his rabbinical life and remember him well.
There is a page for Rabbi Yallow here:
https://www.geni.com/people/Rabbi-Samuel-Yalow/6000000094257119821
There is a marker for him at a cemetery in Syracuse (I have seen different sources indicating a location the Ahavath Achim cemetery or at the nearby Chevra Shas cemetery). According to that marker, he is buried in Bnei Brak. Not sure whether he was originally buried there and moved to Bnei Brak or originally buried in Bnei Brak. There is a low resolution picture of the marker at the Geni site.
For another burial listing for him with a high-resolution image of the marker one can go to billiongraves.com (login required / free account)
https://billiongraves.com/images?t=med6762530&col=1&cat=319637&rec=8082717
https://billiongraves.com/grave/Rabbi-Samuel-Yalow/8082717
re: Rsp’s comment re: chief rabbi of Syracuse
That was true for the most part for American Jewish communities. There were notable exceptions to that rule years ago, eg. RJJ in New York and some other examples in Scranton, PA and Trenton, NJ among several other smaller Jewish communities. Elizabeth, NJ with rabbis Preil and Teitz x 2 would be the most recent standout.
But you are likely correct as it would seem unlikely that R. Yallow was the overaching rav of all the old shuls in Syracuse. From here: https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/syracuse/Synagogues.html it definitely seems like there were a lot of shuls there. Sometimes the term Chief Rabbi can be used with a sense of hyperbole, but sometimes it can be influenced if someone was simultaneously the rav of multiple kehillos in a region – re: R. Yallow, the latter might have been possible (see listings below).
Searching for רב יאלוב or for רב יאלאוו at https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/search will yield a number of hits. Also, there’s a listing for him on page 664 of Who’s Who in American Jewry (1926) at https://books.google.com/books?id=uWrXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA664&lpg=PA664&dq=%22yalow%22
There it seems to indicate that he was born in Europe as he learned in Slabodka and Radun.
Then at some point he arrived in the USA and learned in RIETS. By 1915 he was a rabbi in the Lower East Side at Anshei Neshviz/89 Henry Street (there were a few kehillos at that address). In 1918 he became rav of a small Jewish community in Ansonia, CT (just to the west of New Haven) and by 1920, we see him as a rav in Syracuse – the listing at Who’s Who indicates multiple kehillos: Ahavath Achim and Linas Tzedek. I have also seen multiple articles associating him a Beis Midrash HaGadol in Syracuse.
See this Feb 1959 article in The Forverts on a 40th anniversary banquet made for him at Beis Midrash HaGadol in Syracuse.
https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/frw/1959/02/07/01/article/47/
It’s gratifying to read the comments about my grandfather, Rabbi Samuel (Shmuel) Yalow. Certain clarifications: He was born in 1891 (or 1892) in Rokishok (Rokiskis), Lithuania. He studied in numerous yeshivos in Europe, including Slabodka & Radin. He made his way over to the USA around 1915 and studied for a while in RIETS. He married Esther Marcus (daughter of Rav Yeshaya (Isaiah) Marcus, at that time a Rabbi in Richmond, Virginia) in 1918, and served as the Rabbi in Ansonia, Connecticut for one year, before moving to Syracuse. Soon after my grandmother passed away in 1968, my grandfather moved in to my parents’ home in Boro Park and lived with us until he passed away. He is buried, together with my grandmother, in Bnei Brak. The stone in Syracuse is just a marker. He authored two seforim: Minchas Shmuel and Shalmei Shmuel. His daughter, my mother, Chaniett Lerner, passed away a year and a half ago here in Israel, at the age of 98.