Montreal Philanthropist’s Self Doubt

By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives

Perhaps more than any other donor to the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Montreal, Ida Bloomberg (nee Finkelstein) took responsibility for the yeshiva’s success.

Mr. Arnold Dalfen recalls the day in the early 1940s, when Rabbi Leib Kramer came into their home and described how he had gained her support. “Mrs. Bloomberg liked Rabbi Kramer and what he was doing. She was very attached to him and, later, to his family.”

The children of Chabad chassidim, the Finkelsteins arrived in Montreal, in 1904, with not much more than the clothes they were wearing. At a young age, Ida left school and got a job in a textile factory. The first week, when she told the foreman that she could not work on Saturday, she received the usual response: “This is not the old country. If you don’t come tomorrow, don’t come on Monday.”

Her parents encouraged her to follow her convictions, so she found herself searching for another job. After repeating this scenario several times, however, she grew frustrated and decided she would go to work on Saturday but refrain from activities explicitly prohibited on Shabbos, such as writing or handling money. But this, too, proved to be very difficult, and soon she stopped observing the holy day altogether. At seventeen, she married Samuel Bloomberg, a simple, nice man who took the backseat in their marriage.

With ambition and an aptitude for business, Ida climbed the ranks and eventually saved enough money to open her own successful clothing store, New York Fashions. “She was a businesswoman,” said her granddaughter Gloria Lupas (nee Dubin). “She wasn’t the type to stay home and kiss the children and grandchildren. She was the type to be out there in the store, where she was the boss.”

Although she had abandoned much of Jewish observance, Mrs. Bloomberg never forgot where she came from. She supported all the efforts at Jewish education in Montreal out of the desire to provide for others what she had not had herself.

When she heard about the new Lubavitch school, she wrote to the Rebbe Rayatz, asking if he would accept money from her even though she was not observant. According to her family members, the Rebbe responded that he certainly would. It was a great merit to support Jewish education for young children.

She immediately took charge of the project, rallying the Jewish community behind the newly established yeshivah. “Pioneering in education does not end with an initial success,” she said about supporting the yeshivah, “It is a continuous and arduous process with much to be done. Education stands out as a beacon of light, which shines forth brightly even today, when the whole world is still cloaked in darkness. We must keep this light burning brightly. We must never let it be extinguished.”

What had been done so far, she wrote, “is indeed an inspiration to all those farseeing individuals to whom the ideal of education is ever dear.” But, she continued, “We must make these facilities available to all. Self-dedication to this chosen task, good will in this performance and indefatigable efforts are the compelling considerations. These must characterize one’s efforts in the future for the successful attainment of our mission.”

The first time that Rabbi Kramer brought Mrs. Bloomberg to visit the Rebbe Rayatz, she had a long private audience and spoke in Yiddish. Though she kept most the conversation private, she did say that the Rebbe had given her many blessings for her work in Jewish education. So many, in fact, that she became uncomfortable. “I should have known better and remained frum,” she remembered thinking.

“Genug,” she told the Rebbe, enough with the blessings.

“Why would you not want more?”

“Rebbe, I am not frum.”

The Rebbe, emphasizing a Chabad tenant that one should not examines another person’s deeds and decide who is religious or not. Being frum is striving to be a better Jew. Thus, the Rebbe looked at her and said (paraphrased), “tochter meiner [my daughter], we don’t know who is truly frum, only G-d does.”

Find Hasidic Archives latest books on HasidicArchives.com Story Bites: Short Stories to Savor and Dear Rebbe: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson corresponds with a singer, a writer, a sculptor & a Holocaust survivor, also available on Amazon Prime.