With the tragic passing of R’ Yanky aka Jack Meyer Z”L, dozens of organizations and thousands of people are coming forward with their testaments about his askanus and describing his brilliant and selfless actions.

They are right, but I also think there’s something crucial missing.

I’m a relatively young man. When I was growing up, the name Yanky Meyer was almost mythological. As a child, people aspiring to become a “somebody” other than a rebbi or marbitz torah wanted to a clone of Yanky Meyer. And when we got a little older and some of us went into some field relating to askanus, that image of Yanky Meyer remained.

There are so many askanim now doing incredible work who entry to the world askanus stemmed from this superhuman image of Yanky Meyer at accidents, rubbing shoulders with officials, and being the go-to guy for anything the tzibbur needed. They wanted to be like him and now they are following in his footsteps.

While Yanky Meyer should be remembered for his astounding level of askanus and recognized for his impossibly long list of chasadim he did for others with no benefit whatsoever to himself. But we cannot either lose sight of the fact that he’s still around, perhaps not physically, but still living in every action of numerous askanim around the world all trying to emulate and be a tiny reflection of who he was.

Signed,

D.R.

Brooklyn, NY

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