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Heeb Issue #6 : FeaturesHerring of Truth
(excerpted from original article)
Rabbi Chaim Shnitzelbaum surveyed his domain. After years of operating out of a decrepit tenement in Williamsburg, his window staring out at a brick wall, he had finally engineered the move of Eidas Yisroel, the most prominent ultra-Orthodox organization in America, into a Financial District office space befitting its prestige. Yes, Eidas Yisroel had come a long way since it was founded in 1912 as a response to the crisis in communal leadership facing Polish Jewry. After arriving in America, it had taken space generously donated by Itzik Pfeffercorn, the Herring King of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, that space was part of the Pfeffercorn Herring Works, and even discounting the view, it was not exactly a delight for the senses. But all that was ancient history on that day in early 2000, as Rabbi Shnitzelbaum threw back the curtains and admired his view of—a wall. Not a brick wall, to be sure, but a wall nonetheless—over a hundred stories of wall, in fact, and behind it, another 100-plus stories: the World Trade Center. All those years of dealing with poverty and herring meant nothing. Rabbi Shnitzelbaum knew that something had to be done.
Rabbi Chaim Shnitzelbaum surveyed his domain. After years of operating out of a decrepit tenement in Williamsburg, his window staring out at a brick wall, he had finally engineered the move of Eidas Yisroel, the most prominent ultra-Orthodox organization in America, into a Financial District office space befitting its prestige. Yes, Eidas Yisroel had come a long way since it was founded in 1912 as a response to the crisis in communal leadership facing Polish Jewry. After arriving in America, it had taken space generously donated by Itzik Pfeffercorn, the Herring King of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, that space was part of the Pfeffercorn Herring Works, and even discounting the view, it was not exactly a delight for the senses. But all that was ancient history on that day in early 2000, as Rabbi Shnitzelbaum threw back the curtains and admired his view of—a wall. Not a brick wall, to be sure, but a wall nonetheless—over a hundred stories of wall, in fact, and behind it, another 100-plus stories: the World Trade Center. All those years of dealing with poverty and herring meant nothing. Rabbi Shnitzelbaum knew that something had to be done.
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