From Forest Park Jewish Center, Ezra Academy, YESS!, and the VHQ,
Rabbi Sladowsky was klal Yisrael’s emissary in Queens
Rabbi Yitzchak Sladowsky zt”l was one of Queens Jewry’s early visionaries who saw a need to amplify Torah and Yiddishkeit throughout the borough and spent more than a half century seeing this life mission through. Two decades ago, the rabbi retired from the rabbinate to spend time amongst family in Lawrence, Nassau County, where he continued his avodas ha’kodesh. The Torah giant passed away on Sunday, February 18, at the age of 92. The next morning, a touching levayah was held at Central Avenue’s Cong. Shaaray Tefilah, followed by k’vurah in Eretz Yisrael.
Rabbi Sladowsky was born in 1932 on New Year’s Day to Jacob and Greta née Kanarek Sladowsky in Hamburg, Germany. Alfred, as he was known by many, brought the Eastern European flare for Torah to Queens. But it was his sensitivity, humor, and keen ability to disseminate the pearls of Torah and Judaic wisdom that attracted the tens of thousands he encountered. His eclectic mentors included Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik zt”l (“the Rav”) and author Herman Wouk.
Young Alfred escaped German persecution in 1936. The elder Sladowskys found passage to France via Belgium, and from there to the States with the help of a dear uncle already settled in the US who arranged the necessary travel documents. The Sladowskys ensured that their congregation understood the depth of the horror never going a year without a Holocaust Remembrance Day tribute, and likewise ensured Zionistic feelings for the State of Israel, joining an Israel Independence Day ceremony annually. On the final day of Shavuos, the rabbi held onto the Eastern European tradition of kinus Torah when community rabbanim traveled to their roshei yeshivah during Shavuos, since there weren’t many customs necessary. In turn, Rabbi Sladowsky hosted local rabbis at his shul, a ritual that continues today in Forest Hills.
In 1955, Rabbi Sladowsky married his eishes chayil, Frayda (Fay), and together they had six children: Esther Miriam Friedman, Rayla Sara (and Dr. Benzion) Krupka, Saul Sladowsky, Eve T. Sladowsky, Deborah Horowitz, and Rachel Leah Sladowsky. Ordained in 1956, Rabbi Sladowsky procured the pulpit at Forest Park Jewish Center two years later for their 90 or so families and remained the religious leader for the evolving Queens kehillah until his January 2004 retirement, when he assumed the Rabbi Emeritus title for the 120 member families.
The Sladowskys witnessed drastic changes in the demographics where their shul is situated at the intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and Myrtle Avenue. The neighborhoods that surround the Glendale bastion of Torah thought, founded in 1953 by residents of the Forest Park Coop, shifted from one that once drew over 300 children requiring an array of youthful programing from band classes to a youth group and sporting activities at nearby Victory Field, and Forest Park, and an active sisterhood, too. A full-time Hebrew school, preschool, adult educational institute, and even a Men’s Club were all required for families to feel welcome. This explosion of young marrieds residing in the area climaxed during the decade beginning in the mid-1960s. By the late 1970s, a golden age that had completely differing needs slowly overtook the Torah center.
The synagogue began when a large Jewish population existed in the communities of Richmond Hill, Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, and Howard Beach. A humble Forest Park co-operative basement was first used, until shul leaders bought the current plot for $20,000 as they drew up the grand plans of today’s shul. As is well known, the thriving Jewish center moved eastward to areas like Jamaica Estates and Kew Gardens Hills, and to Long Island, New Jersey, and upstate villages where large homes were plentiful and a welcome change for families used to cramped apartments. Several Forest Park Jewish Center families also moved to Far Rockaway and Bayswater, bringing Torah life back into that region. Today, the Rockaways are flourishing citadels of Yiddishkeit.
When the Russian immigrant boom overtook Queens in the 1990s, Rabbi Sladowsky’s shul benefited to an extent, adding a youthful ambience, but not one near that of the mid-1960s. As new families arrived, the rabbi and his wife welcomed them with holiday delights usually around Thanksgiving in preparation for the winter and Pesach ahead of the summer. The Sladowskys continued to adapt to the needs of their changing congregants, offering adult education on modern Judaism, Gemara, and Chumash, and lasted a remarkable 46 years as spiritual guides in Glendale. Rabbi Meir Glazer of Chofetz Chaim fame continues the mission with minyanim, social, and cultural events for families each Sunday and suddenly renewed progress is afloat.
Well educated with a Bachelor of Arts from Yeshiva University in 1954 and a Master of Arts from Columbia University a year later, Rabbi Sladowsky was primed to accomplish great things. In 1968, when a teachers’ strike shuttered public schools for weeks on end, Rabbi Sladowsky worked alongside Rabbi Eli Marcus z”l and Rabbi Eli Freilich, the current Dean, to establish Ezra Academy Queens High School, with a goal of giving every last Jewish child an education complete with Torah knowledge regardless of their prior understanding. They began with the fundamentals of a Jewish lifestyle and built classes based on familiarity with Jewish ideas, giving every student the maximum dose of Jewish influence. This meant that some were studying the alef-beis while others were into Mishnah and Gemara. At the 2019 Ezra commencement, Rabbi Sladowsky spoke of Aharon HaKohen’s special job of lighting the Menorah in the Mishkan. “Rashi twice refers to the idea that one needs to strive to grow, once from the halachah that the flames must catch and ascend on their own, and the other from the requirement of steps leading up to the Menorah.”
Thirty-three years ago, Rabbi Sladowsky acted as a diplomat extraordinaire, forging the shidduch between the Yeshiva of Central Queens (YCQ) and Yeshivah Education for Special Students (YESS!) that today is still operated at the Yeshiva under Sinai Schools. At the time, Rabbi Sladowsky also was the Chairman of the Board of Education at YCQ for a decade, culminating his tenure in 2002. The eager rabbi began the initiative using available rooms offered by Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld zt”l across the street at his shul, the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, which also housed their current Youth Building. From 1978, the rabbi served as an Advisor on the Ombud Service Program for the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, was on the Advisory Committee for Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, was a member on the Rabbinical Council of America’s Executive Committee, and was a member of the Rabbinic Alumni of Yeshiva University.
Rabbi Hayim Schwartz, Executive Vice President, Rabbinical Seminary of America, recalls how Rabbi Sladowsky was “exceedingly giving of his time and energy to his congregants,” so it is no wonder why he was so beloved. Rabbi Schwartz spoke of the Sladowskys being gracious to the Chofetz Chaim community, then based on Kessel Street in Forest Hills, and how the couple was eager to assist the Yeshiva. “When I was single, I was very involved with J.E.P. housed in the Yeshiva. Annually, we had a Forest Hills Shabbaton, and I was tasked with asking the Sladowskys to host a leader and his prodigies for Shabbos. As it often happened, I ended up being the leader who was chosen to walk the children to the Sladowsky residence on Dartmouth Street, near the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills for the Shabbos afternoon seudah. Rabbi Sladowsky was masterful in talking to the public-school kids.”
Above all, Rabbi Sladowsky served as the Executive Director for the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, working for nearly 23 years alongside Rabbi Peretz Steinberg, Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Queens Valley, and Rabbi Herschel Welcher, Rav of Cong. Ahavas Yisroel. There, he helped bring the kashrus and rabbinic group to the highest standard and created an organization that gave supervision to over 90 percent of eateries and kosher businesses in Queens and its outlying territories. Securing Supersol, now Seasons, was a huge win for Rabbi Sladowsky, who stopped at nothing to bring Queens stellar kosher opportunities. In April of 1997, Rabbi Sladowsky was at the helm of a VHQ decision to halt female t’filah groups that had sprouted in certain Queens neighborhoods. At the time, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l and Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, as well as Yeshiva University deans, Young Israel rabbanim, were used as sources for the VHQ decision.
Rabbi Steinberg commented on Rabbi Sladowsky’s honesty in every situation and how he was an “honorable” individual with whom he was proud to have a longstanding relationship. Rabbi Welcher spoke similarly, explaining how the rabbi was “wonderful” and always “looked for the esteem of the frum community, especially with regard to rabbanus.” Rabbi Welcher expressed how Rabbi Sladowsky maintained the “integrity to stand up and do what was necessary” in each scenario, but it was his “unbelievable demeanor” and capability to “always keep his cool” that made him a standout leader. The VHQ was turned into a major rabbinic organization with a major role in the frum world under Rabbi Sladowsky’s watchful eye.
Rabbi and Rebbetzin Sladowsky were guests of honor at Cong. Shaaray Tefilah’s 107th Chai Dinner in July of 2017, where generations of family joined. The Sladowsky name lives on in Forest Hills, where Chazan Moshe Sladowsky, a grandson, brings his unique blend of traditional nusach with classic and contemporary melodies to the Queens Jewish Center each Yamim Nora’im.
May the endless Jewish souls touched and kindled by Rabbi Sladowsky’s avodas ha’kodesh continue his legacy.
By Shabsie Saphirstein
