Rabbi Wein’s messages were effective in restoring one’s pride in being a Jew

Photos: Elchanan Kotler, Mishpacha, and family archives

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ne of the greatest influences on  my father-in-law, Rabbi Berel Wein, was the Ponevezher Rav, whom he used to host in Florida. As did many others, the Rav came to the area in the winter months to raise money for Ponevezh and for the orphanages for which he was responsible.

He once asked Rabbi Wein to organize a parlor meeting, but stipulated that it should be exclusively for young people. Rabbi Wein naturally responded that the young people weren’t wealthy, and that inviting young couples who couldn’t really give much at this point in their lives wasn’t a successful fundraising strategy.

The Ponevezher Rav insisted on bringing them together anyway. And of course, Rabbi Wein arranged the parlor meeting for the young couples, at which the Ponevezher Rav addressed them.

“There are a million and a half neshamos, a million and a half souls of young children taken by the Nazis, hovering in the universe, in Hashem’s world,” he said.

“These neshamos are looking to come back, but they need a young boy or a young girl to come back in, so that they can be tayere Yidden. You, the young couples, have to have those children, you have to raise those families, and then those neshamos will come, we will have them back with us again.”

That message was one that Rabbi Wein often repeated, telling us, in the name of the Ponevezher Rav, that we are picking ourselves up, building our nation back up again.