The Rabbi of 84th Street

´All creatures - high and low - get equal treatment´.

How mentally reconforting is to read stories of personalities impressive by their modesty and sense of measure. Once upon a time, such behaviors where was really worth talking and writing about, not the extreme and the exageration and the lack of middle way.

The Rabbi of 84th Street written by the journalist Warren Kozak is the animated biography of a real ben Torah, Rabbi Haskel Besser. An extraordinary life of an astonishing modest person. Astonishing for us, in our times, the 2020s. But when Rabbi Besser lived - he died in 2010 - his way of being was so typical of the old countries those outstanding Jews were coming from. 

Rabbi Besser was born in Poland, but extensively travel and learned through Europe, particularly Berlin. With part of his family, he luckily escaped to Israel where he settled for a while before moving to NYC where he spent the rest of his life. It was a personal decision based on his needs and personal considerations: ´His heart was in Israel, but there was also a lack of personal space there that did not fit his personality. In New York, one again, he found the best of both world. He could be as Jewish as he wished, and he could also embrace the freedom of America along with the culture of this great metropolis´.

Strong on his belief and opinions, he opened his heart and house to Jews of all denominations and orientations. Elie Wiesel or Adin Steinsaltz shared Shabbes meals with him and his family and he influenced Ronald Lauder, whom he met when he was ambassador to Austria, to get more involved in Jewish projects and education. Being in contact with non-religious topics and people, as well as with non-Jews were not considered a threat rather an opportunity to discover more about the world that Gd has created. ´We found out that you could be dressed in a modern way and understand the secular world and still be very religious´.

A living testimony of Jewish history, Rabbi Besser never ceased to be travel sharing his story or connecting with Shoah survivors, both in Berlin, Germany in general and his native Poland. Doing chessed and being considerate towards any human being is an obligation that stories like that of Rabbi Besser remind us that no matter where the world turns, we should never give up on being good. 

Rating: 4.5 stars