November 8, 2025
Parshas VaYarah
Professor Lucy Davidowicz
Bill Gladstone
Professor Nancy Sinkoff
I am writing a book on the history of the Kotzker Rebbe. The main book I am using is
הרבי מקאצק וששים גבּורים סביב לו. The book published in 1959 is a Hebrew translation of the 1938 Yiddish book, Der Kotzker Rebbe, authored by Pinchos Glicksman. In it he states that there were five core beliefs of Kotzker Chassidim. These practices are attributed to the Rov of Stashov; however, the text does not mention his name. Who was this anonymous Rabbi of Stashov? On Friday night, November 8, 2025, I visited my daughter, Dr. Shoshana Bracha Levy and asked her for a book to read for Shabbos. She gave me The Golden Thread, written by Professor Lucy Davidowicz. The Golden Thread profiles about 60 people who lived in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust, going back 200 years of history. She has a section on the Kotzker Rebbe. She quotes the five core beliefs of Kotzker Chassidium from the Yiddish book, Der Kotzker Rebbe. Although Pinchos Glicksman in his book Der Kotzker Rebbe does not say who this anonymous Stashaver Rabbi was, Professor Lucy Davidowicz, who was a phenomenal historian, researched this person and said it was Rabbi Yehuda Leib Graubart. I subsequently looked up the books attributed to the Rov in Stashov and she is correct. I danced with joy at this discovery. Rabbi Yehuda Leib Graubart was the chief Rabbi of Toronto and my wife’s grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Noble, was his Chassid. Read the following about Rabbi Graubart and my wife’s grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Leibush Noble.
The following is from my October 24, 2020 blog post
https://kotzk.com/2020/10/28/october-24-2020-shabbos-parshas-noah/
I quote from my post.
Parashas Noah, October 24, 2020
I got up around 2:00 AM and I took my mother-in-law’s father’s Malbim on Chumosh Bereshis. He was Rabbi Yehuda Leibush Noble and was a founder of the Eitz Chaim day school in Toronto. My mother-in-law, Blanche Noble-Janowski, kept the Seforim of her father. The Malbim was published in 1892. He learned Malbim on a regular basis. He held it in his holy hands, learning from it. My grandfather, Reb Sholem Sklar, Bubi Jean’s father, praised his father, Reb Avrohom Shmuel Sklar of Krinki, saying that his father knew all the laws of Shabbos, was an expert in טומא וטהרה, and knew every Malbim by heart. This shows how precious the Malbim was to the Jews of Eastern Europe and that the Malbim was Rabbi Leibush Noble’s go-to Chumash.
I opened it to Sefer Noah and found the following picture tucked into the first page of the Parshas Noah:
This is a picture from the Yiddish paper announcing the death of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Graubart known as “Der Stashover Rebbe.” Please see http://www.billgladstone.ca/j-b-salsberg-and-rabbi-yehuda-leib-graubart/ for more details about Rabbi Yehuda Leib Graubart.
Rabbi Graubart, known as the Mahril Graubart, was the Rebbe of our grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Leibush Noble.
Rabbi Yehuda Leibush Noble wrote on the top of the picture, ה נח ב בחודש חשון תרצח translated as “Thursday, of the week that Noah is read, on the second day of the month of Cheshvan, 1937.” At the bottom of the picture, Rabbi Yehuda Leibush Noble wrote נפטר, which means “passed away.”
This year, Rabbi Graubart’s Yahrzeit was on Tuesday, October 20, 2020. My guess is that Rabbi Noble did not want to forget the Yahrzeit of his Rebbe.
I contacted Bill Gladstone who has a website dedicated to his family’s history and the history of Toronto.
https://www.billgladstone.ca/ bg@billgladstone.ca
I also contacted Professor Nancy Sinkoff of Rutgers to share with them my joy of discovery. I have exchanged a number of emails with her, including my meeting Professor Jack Kugelmass, whom she met in the early 1980s. Professor Sinkoff wrote the following study of Professor Lucy Davidowicz:
From Left to Right: Lucy S. Dawidowicz, the New York Intellectuals, and the Politics of Jewish History
- Author(s): Sinkoff, Nancy
- Publisher & Year: Wayne State University Press, 2020
- M
Information on Professor Nancy Sinkoff:
https://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/people/core-faculty/nancy-sinkoff
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