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then, was brought up in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, and attended public
school there.
Rabbi Abraham Yehoshua Twerski
opened a Talmud Torah in Milwaukee,
and through his bubbie’s gentle
urging, Meir Tzvi, known to everyone
else as Stanley Schuster, became one
of its first students. Rabbi Twerski was
devoted to being m’karev Reb Meir,
and he helped young Meir Schuster
catch up in his Hebrew studies.
Rabbi Twerski recalled Reb Meir’s
tremendous thirst for Judaism.
Soon after he learned how, the
boy used to daven and bentch with
such tremendous fervor that it
inspired everyone around him. He
remembered when “Stanley” at the
age of 14, with his parents’ consent,
went off to learn in yeshiva in Skokie,
Illinois. He had already become a
masmid and from there, he went
on to learn in Yeshiva Ner Israel
in Baltimore, Maryland, where he
studied for seven years, and received
semicha.
At Ner Israel, he was known for
being an extremely dedicated student
and for doing a kind of speech fast
on Shabbos, only speaking words
of Torah. According to his friends,
Reb Meir was an excellent listener,
but a very quiet person who spoke
very little, not wanting to speak one
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THE ENGLISH UPDATE
superfluous word. He was just about
the last person any of them would
have imagined going into the field of
kiruv.
Reb Meir was always on the lookout for ways to do chesed and help
others, and always with his great big,
warm smile. Reb Meir also took on
a job that was definitely not sought
after—the job of going around to
awaken his fellow students. He would
faithfully walk through the dorms
every morning, calling in Yiddish
repeatedly and earnestly, “Wake up,
wake up - it’s time to serve Hashem.”
Encounters at the Kotel
After Reb Meir got married, he
and his wife, Esther, moved to Eretz
Yisrael in 1968. They came with two
suitcases and intended to stay for a
year, while Reb Meir learned in the
Mir Yeshiva. He never went back
to America until many years later,
after he had established the Heritage
House, and needed to raise funds
for it. (No wonder he was able to
encourage thousands of others to also
stay longer in Eretz Yisrael when he,
himself had stayed so much longer
than he planned.)
Reb Chaim Kass, a good friend of
Reb Meir’s, who now runs two health
food stores in Lakewood, recounted
that one day he was learning with
Reb Meir the story of how the Netziv
of Volozhin realized that he wasn’t
reaching his true greatness and
struggled to be granted the siyata
d’Shmaya to fulfill his potential. Reb
Chaim said that this story resonated
very deeply with Reb Meir.
The next day they were davening
together at the Kotel, and they
watched people going to the Wall and
being lit up by the experience. The
thought struck both of them at the
same time: Why can’t someone connect
with these people and bring them closer
to Yiddishkeit?
Then they both noticed this one
young fellow with a backpack. He was
leaning against the wall and crying.
They watched as he composed himself,
and starting walking away from his
holy encounter. That was the moment
of epiphany when they both realized
that this fellow had nowhere to go with
the feelings that had just emerged.
Reb Chaim walked over to the
young man and said, “Hi, I’m Chaim
Kass. I hope I’m not bothering you,
but it looks like something happened
for you there. Can we introduce you to
some real Judaism?” This young man’s
reaction was one of appreciation,
and they brought him to a rabbi with
whom he could learn.
Both Reb Chaim and Reb Meir
were captivated by this experience,
continued on page 33