Campaign Aims to Restore What Was Lost in Devastating School Fire

By Avi Shiff

South Fallsburg.

The name itself conjures up images of a self-contained shtetel, a secluded community perpetuating the timeless mesorah of its founder.

The name represents Torah being lived and taught in purity in the serene and invigorating atmosphere of the Catskill Mountains.

The founding rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedolah Zichron Moshe of South Fallsburg, NY, was Rav Tzvi Abba Gorelick zt”l, who lived a life largely away from the limelight, with few people gaining a glimpse of the true greatness of a person who gave up so much physically and materially to bring about kevod Shomayim. Later he was joined by ybl”c Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel shlit”a.

When Rav Abba’s father, Rav Yeruchem Gorelick zt”l, was looking for a place to relocate his yeshiva from the Bronx, Hashgacha led him to the Laurel Park Hotel in South Fallsburg, NY. Nestled deep in the scenic Catskill Mountains, far away from the hub and tumult of the city, South Fallsburg morphed into a makom Torah where thousands of talmidim have grown in Torah and yiras Shomayim. It is a community where, without distraction, families raise children b’derech Yisroel saba, developing outstanding ovdei Hashem. Just mention “Fallsburg Yeshiva” to any alumnus, friend, or admirer, it immediately invokes the warm vision of the purity of our mesorah.

“The place has something magical about it,” says one talmid. “There’s a level of ruchniyus, hasmadah, yiras Shomayim, and the achdus among the olam that is simply unparalleled.”

Rav Abba himself summed up the uniqueness of South Fallsburg in a remark he made not long before his petirah ten years ago. “The first summer that the yeshiva was open was the summer that man first landed on the moon,” Rav Abba recalled. “The entire world stopped when that took place, yet the bochurim in South Fallsburg didn’t even know about it until a week afterward. Rav Boruch Borchardt zt”l of Camp Agudah asked me then how we dealt with the bochurim that day, since they must have been interested. I told him that they just didn’t know about it. That ruach was manifest from day one.”

Indeed, that ruach was to the credit of Rav Abba, who was dedicated beleiv venefesh to establishing a yeshiva and a surrounding shechunah that would be removed from the world around it and did everything to protect this “reineh vinkele,” as he called it.

The roshei yeshiva succeeded in establishing a fartzeitishe shtetel in America, doing everything possible – then and now – to maintain that aura of a simple, ruchniyusdike community.

This remarkable accomplishment was not without its trials and tribulations. With awe-inspiring fortitude, the South Fallsburg Yeshiva would ultimately carry out a transformation of an undeveloped, barren portion of the Catskill Mountains, turning it into a bastion of Torah, one of the most unique locales on the global Torah map.

This was conveyed quite powerfully when a married Kollel wife living in Eretz Yisroel told a famed mechaneches that she’d be going back to America. When asked to where, she answered, “South Fallsburg.” Smiling, the mechaneches said, “Well, that’s not America!”

How right she is.

The community of South Fallsburg has been able to create a sevivah that is unaffected by the culture around it.

The early years of Yeshiva Zichron Moshe were fraught with difficulties. The area of South Fallsburg was not developed and there was no surrounding infrastructure. It is astounding to contemplate the sacrifices that were made during the formative years of the yeshiva and the community. We, in the year 2020, take for granted that when a yeshiva opens in an otherwise non-Torah locale, the surrounding city welcomes the yeshiva, and allows it to establish itself and grow. In South Fallsburg, that didn’t exist. There was no garbage pick-up or snow removal. There were no stores and there were far fewer roads than there are today. The yeshiva’s founding in South Fallsburg was a true manifestation of the posuk in Yirmiyahu: “Lech teich acharai bamidbar beretz lo zoruah – You followed after Me in the desert, through a land not planted.”

Today, under the leadership of the rosh yeshiva, Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel shlit”a, and Rav Gorelick’s son-in-law, the nosi hayeshiva, Rav Ephraim Sher shlit”a, that very same ruach is tangible in South Fallsburg. It is found in every mosad and facet of the yeshiva community, including its Bais Yaakov elementary school, Bnos Devorah Raizel, home, over the last forty years, to the girls of the local bnei Torah families. Bnos Devorah Raizel had long grown out of its facilities on Reb Chiya Way on the yeshiva campus.

Two years ago, golden shovels pierced the parched ground of an overgrown lot in South Fallsburg for a groundbreaking of a brand new school building. Located on Laurel Park Road, across the street from the school’s current trailers, the building was going to house the students of Bnos Devorah Raizel comfortably, with room for further growth. Completion of the building was drawing close, with a date for a chanukas habayis already finalized.

And then, on the morning of Thursday, January 23, a massive blaze broke out at the construction site of Bnos Devorah Raizel’s building, completely destroying the structure, leaving behind nothing more than a pile of rubble. It was a scene that was hard to watch for the South Fallsburg stalwarts who had invested heart and soul into making the dream of a new building into a reality.

Within hours of the devastating fire, local residents were joined by others in launching a campaign to restore what was lost. The school would bounce back with the help of compassionate Yidden nationwide and beyond.

Bnos Devorah Raizel is a beloved community school catering to those residing in and around South Fallsburg. Named after Mrs. Devorah Raizel (Debbie) Shick a”h bas Reb Avrohom Yosef and Pessia Frankel, the school is a home away from home for its many students.

In a poignant letter, Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel pleads with Yidden, wherever they may be, to step up and participate in assisting the school recoup its losses. The fire is nothing short of devastating, and Rav Wachtfogel stresses that it is “virtually impossible” for the school to continue operating in its current state without the new building. It is absolutely vital that the needed funds be raised in order to rebuild the building, ensuring the continuance of chinuch between the walls of Bnos Devorah Raizel.

An amazing anecdote: When a member of the school’s hanhallah called her former classmate and asked for her help with the campaign, she stopped what she was doing and immediately pledged her support and help. Later that night, her son called her and told her that there was a fire near the boiler in their home. The firefighters remarked that it was miraculous that the blaze did not cause much damage. When the fire broke out, it burst a water pipe and the water put out the fire. Boruch Hashem, no one was hurt. “I feel that it is directly as a result of the zechus of being involved in helping rebuild Bnos Devorah Raizel that we were spared in such a fashion,” she remarked.

The school has established a goal of raising $500,000 in order to ensure the construction of a building for Bnos Devorah Raizel l’sheim ul’tiferes.

To participate in this emergency campaign, click here: https://www.rayze.it/rebuildfallsburg/