Remembering the Rebbetzin

Someone who I personally truly love and miss, who was so close to my heart, is Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis a”h. This year, the 4th yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of her passing falls on Saturday night – Sunday night, the 19th of Menachem Av, corresponding to Aug. 9, 2020. She didn’t just found the Hineni organization – she is one of the founders of the modern-day teshuva movement of Jews changing their lives to live in accordance with our traditions, Torah and mitzvot.  

Way back when, she went to the leaders of her generation and received their blessing to reach out to those who were so far away. It wasn’t big back then, and almost no one was doing it. But she saw the need, and stepped forward to fill it. To me, she is the Sarah Schenirer of our generation, and her diligence saved the Jewish people in a similar fashion to the work of Sarah Schenirer in her day. 

The Rebbetzin’s bestselling book The Committed Life was one of the first books I read during my initial transformation from a university student to Orthodox Jew living a life truly committed to G-d and His Torah. All along my journey, I stayed connected to the Rebbetzin. Whenever she came to whatever city I happened to be living in – and sometimes I got lucky and grabbed her while away on vacation – I was always there.  

The Rebbetzin is still my personal role model. When I first met her, I was awe-inspired by this woman, who saw indescribable terror and experienced so much suffering that it is a miracle that she lived through it. She was the ultimate revenge on the Nazis (may their memory be erased). She didn’t just survive and build her own family, which was revenge enough. She built an empire of Jews becoming more Jewish. She refused to die – she insisted on more life, more Torah, more truth, more connection to G-d.  

Now, as a mother trying to build my own little family, I look at her with even more awe. How did she do it? How did she find time for her children, while hosting guests every week? How did she cook for Shabbos, in between her rigorous schedule teaching classes? How did she have the energy to plan massive events in Madison Square Garden when she had small children to tend to? 

The only answer that I have is that she simply had such an iron-clad will, such incredible desire, to rebuild the Jewish people that she simply created the energy. Clearly G-d also matched her insistence to spread the Torah in her heart with equivalent Divine assistance to meet the demands. Needless to say, she also had a supportive husband who also taught classes, and I am sure helped in innumerable ways. But it is still a testament to her own strength and power of conviction that she was indeed changing the world for the better. 

I can only imagine that she also fought those nagging questions about how such a thing could happen, and why did her little family survive when so many around her didn’t. But she wouldn’t let those questions stop her. Not from rebuilding, not from staying close to G-d, and not from teaching everyone around her about the love and beauty of Judaism that she learned from her illustrious family. “Turn the pages, turn the pages, everything is in it!” 

That was one of the most incredible things about Rebbetzin Jungreis a”h. She was a trailblazer, but only in her ingenuity to bring Jews to come back to step in the footsteps of their ancestors. She was absolutely unstoppable. At one lecture I attended, she had recently broken her collarbone – but she had still flown to come and inspire us without cancelling, despite her age and frailty. 

I still remember the last time I saw her in person. I wrote to her somewhat often, and once she even published one of my letters in her weekly column in The Jewish Press. She was there for me during many difficulties in my life, with love, guidance and support. So, among all the faces that I am sure she somewhat recognized, she also somewhat recognized mine.  

But it was I who saw her first that day at JFK airport. It was a Sunday, the day before I made Aliyah and moved to Israel. I was already in New York in preparation for my flight early the next morning. My mother “happened” to be passing through New York that day on her way back to Los Angeles from overseas, so I met her at the airport in order to see her one more time before the big move across the world. We were able to grab a lovely hour or so while changing terminals and checking into her domestic flight.  

As my mother and I were walking, suddenly I saw the Rebbetzin from across the large room. She was so tiny, but her presence was so huge, you really couldn’t miss her. She was also at the airport on her way to security to make a flight to inspire Jews somewhere. I ran up to her, reminding her who I was, and that I was in NY for my flight to Israel the next day. I still remember her stamping her foot in excitement, showering me with blessings to light my way into my new life.   

I loved her old Europe slower pace of speaking, and her accent. More than anything, I loved the story she always ended her classes with – the famous “Footsteps” story. She told the story about how as the war wore on, they could feel what was  coming.  Her  father  Rabbi  Avraham  HaLevi  Jungreis  zt”l decided to make the dangerous trek across Hungary to visit his father Rabbi Jungreis zt”l one last time. At the end of the visit, she was walking in the snow with her father and tripping because it was so deep. Her father told her, “My child, walk in my footsteps. Then you will not fall.” She didn’t know then just how deep the snow was going to become, but she survived because she walked in her father’s footsteps. Now we as a nation must walk in the footsteps of our ancestors, to continue to light the world with Torah and mitzvot, and not succumb to the false dazzle of secularism and assimilation. 

How amazing, as her daughter Chaya Sora pointed out, that she passed away during the Torah portion of “Eikev” which literally means “heel” in Hebrew, but her father taught that it referred to “footsteps.” It was her portion, so to speak. 

As high as it is to die al Kiddush Hashem, to be martyred for being a Jew – it is even higher to live al Kiddush Hashem, for the sake of G-d. There is a famous story that there is a special place in Heaven for those who survived the Holocaust and did not lose their faith. Rebbetzin Jungreis, I have no doubt that in that special hall way up there that no one is allowed to enter, you are there, right at the front. Not only did you not lose your faith – your faith shone like a beacon for so many others to follow its light.  

To follow in your footsteps. 

*** 

Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.  
 

 
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel's English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email:  rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.