Next Stop, London

Gateshead’s Rav Shraga Feivel Zimmerman takes the helm of England’s Federation of Synagogues
Photos: Shuli Smus Photography
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s Shabbos parshas Shelach approached, word began to spread throughout British Torah Jewry that the Gateshead Rav, Rav Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, would be leaving his position for London, where he’d assume the title of rav and av beis din of England’s Federation of Synagogues. “Normally, it takes me ten minutes to walk down Golders Green Road to shul on Shabbos morning,” Andrew Cohen, president of the Federation, told me. “Last week, it took me an hour, as every person I passed offered his congratulations upon the Federation securing the leadership of Rav Zimmerman.”
In Gateshead, Rav Zimmerman’s Shabbos afternoon shiur in Pirkei Avos drew an audience of 300 instead of the usual 150, including some of the roshei yeshivah and leading rabbanim of the community. They came to listen to Rav Zimmerman reflect on his 11-year tenure as rav of Gateshead.
I spoke at length to Rav Zimmerman to hear his thoughts on leaving behind the premier public mission of his life and entering a new stage of public involvement. It’s clear that the move brings mixed feelings — anticipation of the challenges and opportunities ahead, along with bittersweet goodbyes to a cherished community.
But back when Rav Zimmerman was offered the rabbanus of Gateshead in 2008, it wasn’t clear that the Monsey-based rav would make the move at all. “Before accepting the rabbanus in Gateshead, I consulted with a long list of great talmidei chachamim,” he said, “and only two told me definitively to take the position.”
Those two outliers were Rav Eliyashiv, who said simply, “If you can do it, you must do it,” and Rav Yitzchok Sheiner, rosh yeshivah of Kaminetz, who told Rav Zimmerman, “Gateshead is the spiritual engine that powers Europe in the same way Lakewood powers America. But the engine has fallen off the tracks and needs to be put back on. You can do that.”
Once Rav Zimmerman accepted the position, he received a blessing from Rav Dovid Soloveitchik, his rosh yeshivah for six years, that he should be a European rav of old, i.e. a manhig. And Rav Chaim Kanievsky gave him a piece of advice that served him in good stead.
“I asked him,” Rav Zimmerman recounts, “how one can be a rav in a town of rabbanim. He replied, ‘It’s a town of roshei yeshivah, not rabbanim. If you don’t try to show that you can be a rosh yeshivah, they won’t try to show that they can be the rav.’”
In keeping with that advice, Rav Zimmerman never gave a Gemara shiur during his years in Gateshead, focusing instead on halachah and hashkafah. And much as Rav Chaim predicted, Rav Zimmerman gained the respect and affection of the community. As he prepares to leave for London, he mirrors the same qualities back in return.
“Gateshead is a unique community in many respects,” he says. “It remains very much a single community. People know and care about one another. They are nosei b’ol chaveiro. I will miss sharing simchahs with all the close friends we have made.
“It is also a makom Torah that has few, if any, rivals in the world. Every hour of the day or night, one can find yeshivah bochurim engrossed in learning in the batei medrash or talking in learning as they walk down the street. It boasts numerous superb kollelim. And it is home to great roshei yeshivah and many world-class talmidei chachamim.”
The rabbanus of Gateshead is also unique. On my first visit to Gateshead over 20 years ago, my host told me that no one in the community would buy a new car or even replace the linoleum on his kitchen floor without asking the Rav, Rav Betzalel Rakov ztz”l, whether he was indulging in luxuries. Where else in the world is the rav routinely consulted to such a degree?
And in terms of his communal authority, the Rav of Gateshead is a throwback to the days of Rav Yitzchok Elchanan Spektor of Kovno. “Won’t you miss that authority?” I ask Rav Zimmerman.
“You are right that the rabbanus of Gateshead is unique, and that is a large part of what attracted me to Gateshead in the first place,” he admits. Rav Zimmerman descends from a long line of European communal rabbanim. His maternal grandfather, Rav Yosef Yonah Zvi Horowitz, was the last rav of the Austrittsgemeinde shul of Frankfurt, and another ancestor was the Beer Shmuel, Rav Shmuel Rosenberg of Unsdorf. Still, even for an experienced rav with a rich pedigree, Gateshead offered something special: “It’s one of the few places left in the world where a communal rav can issue takanos and make them stick,” Rav Zimmerman said.
A major reason for that unquestioned authority is the fact that membership in the community is essential to living in Gateshead. Without membership, one’s children will not be accepted in any local schools, and one cannot be buried in the Jewish cemetery.
In the past, there was only one criterion for membership in the Gateshead community: that one be a shomer Shabbos. Because of the mesirus nefesh involved in keeping Shabbos when the community was established, that was a sufficient indicator of adherence to a unified religious standard. But during Rav Zimmerman’s tenure, the community nearly doubled from 300 families to close to 600, and it became necessary to issue much more detailed requirements for communal membership to preserve the cohesion of the community.
The new criteria for membership dealt with such issues as use of technology, with guidelines that were at once restrictive and cognizant of the needs of modern commerce.
Still, the guidelines are far from liberal.
“There were times I advised families that Gateshead was not the place for them,” Rav Zimmerman said, “and that they would be better off in a less strict environment in which they would be viewed as pillars of the community. Most of these families accepted my advice and were grateful for it.
“One specific area of new takanos dealt with Purim behavior, which had literally become a matter of pikuach nefesh. We banned yeshivah bochurim from drinking anything but wine, and even wine is only permitted during the day. Balabatim are prohibited from serving any bochur who is already inebriated. The takanos changed the character of Purim in Gateshead, and allowed the introduction of new learning sedorim on Purim in almost every local institution.”
“Given the special qualities of Gateshead and the unique authority of the rav,” I press the Rav, “how are you able to tear yourself away?”
“Leaving Gateshead will be bittersweet,” he says. “But the short answer is that I’ve achieved, or, more accurately, overseen the achievement of most of what I came to Gateshead to do. I recently returned to Rav Sheiner, who first pushed me to accept the position in Gateshead, and he confirmed that I have completed my mission.”
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