Elias Schwartz
Quick Facts
Biography
Rabbi Elias Schwartz was a synagogue rabbi, a yeshiva principal, and an author.
His students and past congregants numbered in the thousands
The two volumes that he authored using the title V'Shee-non-tom (And thou shalt teach them)were to extend the work he did in helping to found Olameinu Magazine.
Synagogue rabbi
His synagogue, Young Israel of Bensonhurst, was in a neighborhood that changed several times since he accepted its pulpit "in the early 1960s."
Yeshiva principal
Similarly, the backgrounds of his students at Yeshiva Toras Emes Kaminetz changed from "the 1940s..." when "Rabbi Schwartz assumed leadership of Torah Emes."
Schwartz also oversaw the relocation of the school's 3 buildings twice:
- first, from a pair of buildings housing the elementary grades, on 43rd street between 13th and 14th Avenue, and a separate building blocks away housing the high school, all in the lower end of Boro Park, to a single building a mile away
- then, years later, to the Midwood section ofFlatbush.
The growing presence of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union within Brooklyn added to both his congregation and the yeshiva, and he helped with "the many challenges they faced."
Education
He was a student at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, where his primary influences were Rabbis Shlomo Heiman and Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz
Works
- V'shee-non-tom, Volume I, For each and every sedra<
- V'shee-non-tom, Volume II, Pesach, Shevuos, Succohs
- Delving Within by Rabbi Elias Schwartz
In Volume I of V'Shee-non-tom, Schwartz describes his work on this volume as an outgrowth of his work on Olameinu Magazine.
First came the weekly mimeograph sheets, sent home to parents of the Yeshiva where he was principal. This came to the attention of NCSY's Rabbi Pinchos Stolper; the material was printed by UOJCA, the parent body, for use by NCSY group leaders.
Biography
Upon his November 23, 2016 (22 Mar-Cheshvan) passing, he was survived by a son (Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Schwartz), a daughter (Mrs. Hoschander), and 2 more generations of descendants.