Remembering Rabbi Pinchas Aharon Weberman, architect of Miami’s religious infrastructure

Photos: Family archives

Sixty years ago, Rabbi Pinchas Aharon Weberman proved himself as both a pioneer and a visionary when this dynamic and selfless trailblazer moved his young family to Miami Beach, spending the next six decades developing and maintaining all the infrastructure vital to Jewish life while never compromising his own Torah scholarship and yiras Shamayim. On his first yahrtzeit, family members and fellow rabbanim share memories of a beloved leader

ONFriday nights after Maariv, when the gabbai at Miami Beach’s Congregation Ohr Chaim, Dr. Victor Sabo, would make his weekly announcement that the eiruv was operational, all of the congregants in attendance, including me, knew why.

It was because Rabbi Pinchas Aharon Weberman had spent hours on Erev Shabbos riding atop a red and black ATV, his white peyos tucked under a brown baseball cap, inspecting every inch of eiruv wire along the length of Miami Beach, routinely subjected to strong winds off the sea.

That hands-on approach typified Rabbi Weberman, whose first yahrzeit was commemorated this week on the 28^th of Tammuz. Today, Jews in Miami Beach take carrying on Shabbos for granted — but only because Rabbi Weberman had come along and taken charge of the eiruv reconstruction project. Thanks to his intervention, mikvaos in the community are halachically state of the art, and he also inaugurated the highest standards of kashrus.

His inspiration came from a variety of sources, including a resolute family background, a large dose of earnest self-motivation, and sage rabbinical advice.

Born into a Williamsburg family in 1930 (see sidebar) that was already well-established in America since the 1880s, Rabbi Pinchas Aharon Weberman became a young cheder rebbi at the local Be’er Shmuel Yeshivah in the 1950s. Many of his students came from households of Holocaust survivors or refugees, and he would comb the nearby Rockaway Beach for seashells to hand out as prizes to his young charges. Little did he know his affinity for the beach would eventually enrich the lives of tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews in South Florida.

As much as he earned zechuyos teaching cheder boys early in his career, in 1957 Rabbi Weberman, already a very learned man, felt the time had come to spread his wings and reach a more diverse flock. He wanted to move to a community that needed strong Torah leadership. A colleague at Be’er Shmuel recommended he consult with the Lubavitcher Rebbe before making any moves. He was impressed in that initial meeting with the Rebbe’s erudition and life insights; he accepted the Rebbe’s suggestion that he learn to be a mohel and a shochet and agreed to consult with him on any job offers he received.

Rabbi Weberman’s wife, Gittel Leah, had an aversion to the cold — both in the form of New York’s winters, and in the form of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, which was then reaching its peak. Although she feared for America’s security, the Rebbe told them not to worry about the Cold War. He did advise Rabbi Weberman to turn down the first job offer as a shochet he received, as it was in a Midwestern state. Winters there could be more forbidding than New York’s, and besides, the Rebbe quipped, Rabbi Weberman’s communications skills would make him more successful dealing with people than with animals.

Another job offer came from South America, which fulfilled Rebbetzin Weberman’s criterion for warm weather, but the Rebbe thought the challenges of both learning a new language and adapting to a new culture would be daunting.

So Rabbi Weberman took a pilot trip to Miami. Although he returned without a job offer, he had seen the potential. In those years, Americans, including Orthodox Jews, were spreading their wings too, moving in droves from the Rustbelt to the Sunbelt. Miami’s Orthodox Jewish population had also swelled, thanks to new retirees and seasonal residents, and a wave of Jewish emigration from Latin American countries engulfed in political turmoil, such as Cuba, Colombia, and Argentina.

The Rebbe gave his blessing and Rabbi Weberman moved his young, growing family to South Florida in 1960. He established an Orthodox synagogue for a dozen families in a storefront on Normandy Isle, which eventually became Congregation Ohev Shalom, now located on Bonita Drive and 71^st Street, a stone’s throw from Indian Creek and a five-minute walk from the Atlantic Ocean.