Community Magazine January 2019

Remember i ng Ch i ef Rabb i , Hacham Shau l Kass i n, z t ” l 36 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Hacham Shaul Rahamim J. Kassin – The Early Years Shaul Rahamim J. Kassin, the firstborn son of Mazal Hedaya Kassin and Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin, was born in 1921 in Eretz Yisrael . He spent his elementary years in yeshiva and his first language was Hebrew. He grew up in a religious environment, and knew already from a young age that he would grow to be a rabbi, following a centuries-old Kassin family tradition of Torah greatness and leadership, which dates back to the 16 th century. His mother, Mazal, was the daughter of Rabbi Shalom Hedaya, zt”l , and hismaternal grandmother was a descendant of the Labaton rabbinical family. In 1933, Shaul’s father, Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin, accepted the position of Chief Rabbi of the Bensonhurst community. Shaul was 12, already a young adolescent, when his parents brought him and his siblings – Charlotte, Albert, and Isaac – to New York. Early Struggles With no Sephardic yeshivas in Brooklyn, all of Rabbi Jacob’s children attended public schools. Shaul wore a yarmulke and found the English language difficult. With no English skills, Shaul struggled mightily in school. In a 1999 interview with this author, Rabbi Shaul said: The principal gave me a math problem and she put me in the fifth grade. But I didn’t know English and I couldn’t understand anything. So, I left the school and I didn’t go for a few days. The truant officer came to the house, so I ran up and got into bed with my clothes on. The truant officer and the principal went to my room and pulled down the cover and dragged me back to school. Finally, his father enrolled him in Yeshiva Ohel Moshe , at the Jewish Community House on Bay Parkway in Bensonhurst, where he was initially placed in a third grade English class. He was promoted every few months, until he caught up to his peers in secular studies. Shaul eventually graduated from Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy, the high school of Yeshiva University, and he later attended Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchonon Theological Seminary, receiving rabbinical ordination in 1948. He studied as well under his father, Rabbi Jacob, who also conferred upon him ordination. During his time at Yeshiva University, Rabbi Shaul served as editor-in-chief of Nir , yearbook of the university’s Teachers Institute, and of the school newspaper, for which he also wrote Hebrew articles. Rabbi Shaul was an excellent mathematician, and he typed his own speeches in both Hebrew and English. After becoming a rabbi, Rabbi Shaul Kassin taught for over 32 years at the Magen David Talmud Torah , and then at Magen David Yeshiva. He taught hundreds upon hundreds of students. Among his most prominent students were his brothers, Rabbi Isaac Dweck, Rabbi Moshe Shamah, Rabbi Benjamin Seruya, Rabbi ShlomoDiamond, Rabbi David Cohen, Dr. Robert Matalon, Dr. Eddie Sutton, and Dr. Leo Sultan. Family First While teaching at the Talmud Torah, Shaul caught the eye of Abraham Seruya, a traveling salesman from Chicago and owner of Joyvel Stores. Abraham visited New York often, andhis brother, Benjamin, lived in Brooklyn. He would occasionally visit the Magen David Talmud Torah , where he gave students prizes. Leon Levy, one of the community’s leaders at the time, introduced Mr. Seruya to Rabbi Jacob Kassin, and the two men arranged the marriage of Shaul to Freida, Mr. Seruya’s second daughter, when she was 16 years old. The couple married in 1945, and lived in Bensonhurst. Three years later, they purchased a home at 2108 67 th Street in Bensonhurst for $5,000. They lived there for 20 years before moving to the Shaare Zion community in 1968. History Picture taken in 1925 - Hacham Yaakov Kassin (25 years old) with his children, Hacham Shaul Kassin (4 years old) and Charlotte (wife of Hacham Baruch Ben Haim). SARINA ROFFÉ Rabbi Shaul Kassin, 1970