Page 40 - HaMizrachi Tu BiShvat 5782 - USA

Mighty Builders

Planting Seeds

Reflecting on the Extraordinary Story

of Sam and Arie Halpern

am and Arie Halpern z”l were two of the most impactful American Jews Poland. Our grandfather was a chassid;
of the post-Holocaust era. Born to a Chassidic family in Chorostkov on when our fathers were young, they had
the Polish-Ukrainian border, the brothers lost their parents, brother peyot. As they got older they became
Sand most of their family and friends in the Holocaust. Surviving ghet- more modern, but they carried Judaism
tos, concentration camps and many months in hiding, Sam and Arie arrived with them their entire lives.
in the United States in 1949, where together they built a series of successful
businesses, developing homes, apartments and commercial property. Growing up, they were Zionists as
well. They had a brother, Avraham
Together with Sam’s wife Gladys and Arie’s first wife Frieda and his second Chaim, who before the Holocaust was
wife Eva, the Halperns became philanthropic leaders in the Jewish commu- on hachshara, planning to immigrate
nity, supporting both local Torah institutions in New Jersey and an array of to Palestine; he did all the paperwork
organizations in support of the State of Israel. Arie served as an Honorary to get a visa, raised the money for the
President of the Religious Zionists of America. ticket and had a permit to go. But then
Rabbi Samuel E. Klibanoff, Rabbi of Congregation Etz Chaim in Livingston, New the Jewish Agency told him, “Sorry, you
Jersey, and Chairperson of Israel Bonds’ Rabbinic Advisory Council, recently have to give up your permit because the
spoke with three of Sam and Arie’s children – Bella Savran, Shelly Paradis and Jews of Germany are in greater danger
David Halpern – to learn more about their life and legacy. than the Jews of Poland.” And so Avra-
ham Chaim’s permit went to a German
Jew, and he was stuck in Poland. He
Tell us a little about Arie and Sam’s uncle in America, Paul Wolfson, who was then drafted into the Polish army
extraordinary story of survival and sponsored their immigration. and was killed in the battle of Chelm
rebirth. How did their experiences in the With the money they had made in when the Nazis attacked in September
Holocaust shape their lives in America? 1939. Our fathers never forgot that. It
Germany, Arie and Sam were able to drove them to join and be involved in
After the Shoah, in which so many of buy a little grocery store in Manhat- every Jewish organization they could
their family members and friends were tan, near City College. They worked for the rest of their lives.
murdered, they were trying to figure very hard and eventually bought a
out where to go. When they went back few more grocery stores. Eventually,
to their hometown, they realized it was through a friend in shul, they heard We don’t typically associate Chassidic
judenrein (free of Jews); they couldn’t about another business called “building thought with Zionism. How did brothers
go back there anymore. They went to houses in New Jersey,” in which you from a Chassidic background become
a Polish border town and ultimately to didn’t have to work on Shabbat. They essential leaders of the Religious Zionists
the American Zone in Germany, where really hated having to work on Shabbat, of America and Israel Bonds?
they started a business and began to and this was a great opportunity. They They were teenagers when they joined
get their lives back on track. When the tried it for a year and saw that it was the Noar Tzioni (Youth Zionists) and
State of Israel was established, Frieda’s good, and so we all moved to Elizabeth, hid their peyot. Part of it was a teenage
family moved to Israel, and Sam and New Jersey, where Rabbi Pinchas Teitz rebellion, but it was also the spirit of
Arie wanted to follow. But the relatives had established a strong Jewish com- the times; most of the young people in
in Israel sent word that things were munity with a yeshivah and a shul. Chorostkov were going in that direc-
very difficult in Israel because of the tion. Like today, the younger people
War of Independence, and that they When they came to America and rebuilt didn’t accept the more conservative
their lives, they rebuilt the Jewish lives
should go to America instead and come as well. They dedicated themselves approach of their parents. They didn’t
to Israel later on. Sam and Arie had an
to all the things they had learned in want to be passive victims anymore.

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