YWN regrets to inform you of the petirah of Rav Shimon Alster zt”l, the venerated rosh yeshiva of Cliffwood and the rav of Bais Medrash Torah U’tefillah in Flatbush (Bedford Ave and Avenue L).
Rav Shimon was the only child of Reb Yosef Shmuel and Gittel Alster, who were natives of Galicia but grew up in Antwerp, where they got married in 1935. He lost his father at a very young age, when in 1946, a plane crash claimed the life of his father and nearly two dozen others when it struck a mountainside in Gander, Newfoundland.
As a young mesivta bochur, Rav Shimon went to Eretz Yisroel to learn, enrolling Yeshivas Kol Torah and taken in under the wings of its giants, including its famed rosh yeshiva, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l. Upon returning to the U.S., he studied in Yeshivas Chasan Sofer under Rav Binyomin Paler zt”l.
Over time, Rav Shimon became an acclaimed marbitz torah, taking a shtellar as a maggid shiur at the Mesivta of Long Beach, where he taught for decades before opening his yeshiva in Cliffwood, New Jersey, where he was mechanech hundreds of talmidim over the years.
He was additionally the rav of Bais Medrash Torah U’tefillah, a position he used to raise an entire kehilla’s level of ruchniyus and avodas hashem.
The Levaya will be held on Sunday morning at 9:30AM at the Shul on Bedford Avenue and Avenue L. A second Levaya will be held in Lakewood at BMG’s Bais Yitzchok. Kevura will be in Deans, NJ.
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Yehi Zichro Baruch.
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2 Responses
What a tremendous loss to Klal Yisroel.
Reb Shimon was a giant, in Torah, a genius in chinuch, and loved every talmud. But most of all he loved Yidden.
“Big people do small things”. Was something reb Shimon would always repeat. He truly emulated and lived that way. His greatness in Torah, and Avodah, but was never too busy for anyone.
May He be a Meiltz Yosher for the entire Klal Yisroel.
הרב הגאון זצ”ל