And here's one of the nicest pictures I've ever seen. Always makes me feel good. I'm not sure, but my guess is it's an outtake from Life's 1955 issue, part V in a series on The World's Great Religions; Judaism, which you can see here. This is apparently research, not a Beis Midrash, so my guess is that this is behind the scene at the Encyclopedia Talmudit, Mossad Horav Kook or something like that.
Beautiful pic.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Otzar HaPoskim to me. In their hay day they employed many people to create an index of the responsa literature. That would explain why they all have index cards. And working in cramped quarters fits in to the property they have. The mixed backgrounds was also character of Otzar HaPoskim Encyclopedia Tamudit as far as I know was a commissioned project, meaning they worked where ever they wanted and turned in their work. They have authors from America, Canada and Israel. Otzar HaPoskim also worked on commission (either per card or teshuva, depending on the period) but was created as an after the fact program for rabbonim from Europe that needed a livelihood; the index was a means to employ them nobly. So there was a requirement to show up to work (which was downstairs from where many of them slept).
ReplyDeleteLooks similar to the Harry Fishel kolel in Yerushalayim.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the nice Life article. I have three friends surnamed Fink, and I hope to find out if there's a relation to the folks in the article.
ReplyDeleteQuick question: You wrote: "This is apparently research, not a Beis Midrash," It seems like you're comparing apples to oranges. Perhaps you meant to say, "The men are apparently doing research, so they're probably not in a Beis Midrash" or something like that? -- Phil
Your link to the Life article did not work for me. Try this instead:
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=bVYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA38-IA5&lpg=PA38-IA5&dq=1955+issue,+part+V+in+a+series+on+The+World's+Great+Religions;+Judaism&source=bl&ots=Qeo_Z1E191&sig=9F0unmojTE8cQlrdsjbZUlaPyeo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UAgGT_bhB8nx0gHj1KHtCQ&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=1955%20issue%2C%20part%20V%20in%20a%20series%20on%20The%20World's%20Great%20Religions%3B%20Judaism&f=true
The behind the scenes orchestrations that lead to the writing of the article particularly such that it emphasised the Orthodox, and the Fink family in particular, is detailed in Victor Geller's book "Orthodoxy Awakens: the Belkin Era", which is quite interesting (albeit not really about Belkin).
I think the person sitting facing the camera in the center of the photograph with the long beard and black eyglasses is R. Dov Meir Krauzer (1926-2007), who was one of the first members of the Harry Fishel Institute. Incidentally, he also worked for the Mechon Hatalmud Hayisra'eli Hashalem (which later merged/turned into Yad Harav Herzog), and for the Encyclopedia Talmudit. And he was also Rosh Yeshiva in New Square, NY.
ReplyDeleteAnd one of the two clean shaven people (the one on the left) MIGHT be R. Shmuel Krauzer (1926-1997) who also worked for Encyclopedia Talmudit. I say might be, because the picture I saw of R. Shmuel had him wearing eyeglasses, but besides for that the person in the Life photograph looks strikingly similar.
Great picture. Very achdus-y. Just what the doctor ordered.
ReplyDeleteThe photo is most probably staged, no?
ReplyDeleteYes, but I'm not sure if it's staged per se, or if it actually is a work room where people were doing what they did. I remember once when I was in yeshiva a film crew came in to capture our shiur. We knew about it in advance, and were all aware of it, and it was staged in that sense, but it also was an actual shiur. If you ask me, the guy in the back who's sort of smiling in particular is well aware of the camera.
ReplyDeleteI like what seems to be the "mix" of people...
ReplyDeleteGreat Photo!
ReplyDeletethanks for id'ing some of the people yeedle. both krauzers are born in 1926?
ReplyDeleteany other positive id's?
I made a mistake. R. Shmuel Krauzer was born in 1921. You can see both of their pictures as well as short bios in the back of Encyclopedia Talmudit, vol. 29 (p. 18 of the bios section). I scanned the page, and I can email it to you if you like.
ReplyDeleteOn Rabbi Joel Fink (Mentioned in the LIFE article with a photo):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=50319&st=&pgnum=80
What achdus??? Looks to me like there is one table for clean shaven folks, one for bearded folks and another for only those that wear traditional yerushalmi levish.
ReplyDelete