Celebrating the Rabbi Who Cares

By COLlive reporter
Photos, Video: Itzik Roytman

The 66th birthday of Rabbi Avrohom Gerlitzky, a respected talmid chacham in Crown Heights and a beloved maggid shiur in Beis Medrash Oholei Torah, was marked with much fanfare.

It has become a tradition among his students since 1981 to go all out in celebrating the day with a lavish farbrengen, signs and even gifts.

“We do it as a small reciprocation of the effort Reb Avrohom puts into his class, we are all like children to him,” said Yanky Bennish, one of the organizers of the 5774 festivities.

“He has been putting his heart and soul into teaching for over 40 years and has thousands of grateful students,” he told COLlive.com.

When the rabbi came to the Yeshiva Zal on Thursday morning, he found a 66-foot banner hung on the facade overlooking Eastern Parkway and congratulatory fliers on many cars in the neighborhood.

Bochurim presented him with a rare, and previously unseen, photo of himself with the Rebbe. The image was professionally edited, enlarged and mounted on a frame.

A plaque on the bottom had a quote from the Rebbe explaining how Rabbi Gerlitzky, who penned the sichas said at farbrengens and then sent it out worldwide, was the “only one who cares” about what the Rebbe says.

And if that wasn’t enough, during the farbrengen party they presented him with a letter of appreciation mounted on a plaque. He was joined by his brother in law, Reb Yisroel Shemtov.

Finally, the main gift was an iPad 2 with retina display. It was loaded with all the Rebbe’s teachings. “Reb Avrohom was amazed that technologies have advanced so that he can search through the Rebbe’s letters and sichos at the click of a button,” one bochur said.

The gifts were fundraised for and purchased by Yanky Bennish, who coordinated the celebration with assistance from Srulli Kagan (publicity), Mendy Shollar (party planning) and Dani Lewkowitz (barman).

Birthday wishes can still be sent to [email protected].