Esther Feigel Rabinowitz was born in the Old City of Jerusalem in March, 1896.
She descended from a great Kabbalist, the great Maharsha, or Machshoy. Click here for info on the Machshoy.
Esther Feigel was one of 11 children. There was a high infant mortality rate in Jerusalem at the time and 5 older siblings died as infants or young children, leaving her as the oldest child to survive. Her mother, Goldie Gottlieb Rabinowitz owned a bakery in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. She would buy unpasteurized milk from Arab farmers, and the children got sick. By the time Esther Feigel was born, Golde stopped buying the milk that was causing all this sickness, or perhaps Esther survived because she had a stronger constitution than her older siblings who died.
Esther's father was a learned man who earned a small living from a yeshiva. He taught her to read and write Yiddish and Hebrew. She developed a deep interest in Jewish History and Talmud, including Midrash and Chumash and other sacred texts.
Her family moved outside the walls of the Old City to the neighborhood of Meah Shearim (or Beit Yisrael which is close by to Meah Shearim), in the New City of Jerusalem. Her brother David attended Yeshiva Meah Shearim, built in 1883. Esther had a very bright and active mind, hungry for knowledge. Esther Feigel wasn't allowed to study in Yeshiva as only boys could, yet she still felt a connection to the Yeshiva and liked the atmosphere of learning and scholarship. I think she used to sit in classes at the Yeshiva, or did she sneak in? Perhaps I'm getting mixed up with the movie "Yentl"?
Turkey-The Ottoman Empire held a strict reign over Jerusalem. Because many countries desired Jerusalem, Turkey discouraged development of land and prosperity in Jerusalem so that other countries would have less to gain from control of Jerusalem.
As a child Esther shouldered great responsibilities in helping her family "live on starvation", as she stated it. She was old before her time - "I never went to play". While her mother took care of the infants, Esther was quick and efficient in taking care of her younger brothers and sisters. Yet she still went from house-to-house to collect money to help those poorer than herself. Like her father and grandfather before her she was always willing to help those more unfortunate than herself.
When Esther was 16 years old she was introduced to a very religious and handsome 19 year-old scholar named Itzchak (Isaac) Baruch Leibowitz, who was teaching in a Yeshiva. He was also descended from a great and learned family. His grandfather was an outstanding "Bal Shem" in Roumania. Born in Yasse, Roumania, he was brought by his aunt (or mother?) to Jerusalem when he was 2 years old.
Esther Feigel and Isaac Baruch married 6 months after they met. She describes him as "beautiful", and herself as a "good looking goil".
But Esther was not fated to remain in Jerusalem. World War I and chaos broke out. In December 1916 Roumania entered in the war against Turkey. Isaac Baruch belonged to the French Council, and France was at war against Turkey. Because he was born in Roumania, the Turks ruling in Jerusalem may have considered Isaac an enemy alien and would have either enlisted Isaac in the Ottoman army, or put him in an internment camp. Being devoutly religious, he would not do either.
My grandmother Esther Feigel loved Jerusalem and did not want to leave. She was afraid she might be forced to leave Jerusalem, but the young couple had no choice but to leave Jerusalem. Before she left, Esther Feigel made a lifetime pledge. She went to Yeshiva Meah Shearim and spoke with the founder of the Yeshiva, the Dubrovner Rav, Rabbi Chaim Shmuel Horowitz. He told her not to forget the Yeshiva and Jerusalem. She said of that meeting:
"The day I left Jerusalem I went to the Yeshiva to give a donation. The rabbi said to me 'Go my child, go. (I didn't want to leave Palestine). Wherever you live in the world, remember the Yeshiva'.""I did".
"Don't be afraid to leave Israel, my child. But when you go out into the world, try to do whatever you can for the Meah Shearim Institutions. Remember that they are not charity institutions alone, but they are also great centers of Torah education. You will be enabling many families to send their children to study Torah without suffering hunger or the shame of wearing torn clothes. You will be helping Torah students to stand upright and proud. Do what you can!"
She did.
... Leave Jerusalem? It was her life. It was her home, where she would sit for hours, as a child, listening to the cantors and she loved Yeshiva Mea Shearim. It was where she would take daily walks to Rachel's grave where she would sit, ponder and pray. Leave Jerusalem?"There was nothing else to do," Mrs. Leibowitz recalled. I went to the grave of Rachel, and then I went to the yeshiva to say goodbye. I had tears in my eyes when I saw Rabbi De Rov Brouner, the great teacher and founder of the yeshiva. I remember his words as he kissed me. 'Remember the yeshiva, Esther, remember the children... keep them in your heart wherever you go.' "
Their first child Pearl was born in the transit camp. Like her mother, Pearl had "malaria and everything but money and what to eat". The Egyptian government gave bread, water and sugar and often accidentally bugs as food. I asked her, "How did you live", and she answered "When you have to live there, you live." My middle name is Pearl, named after Pearl, who was a talented pianist with a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music, when she died of pnuemonia when at 18.
They stayed in the transit camp in Egypt for a year until the war was over in November, 1918, at which time her uncle in America sent passage money. Isaac, Esther and Pearl traveled to America at a dangerous time when the German army was apt to sink ships. Pearl became very sick, nearly died, but survived.
Upon arrival in America, they stayed at her uncle's and then rented an apartment for $7.00 a month in Brooklyn. They tried to eck out a living.
"My whole life I had a miserable life. I lost 4 children (ultimately 5 of her 6 children died before she did). Since I was 7 years, I help people. In the US when I didn't have what to eat, I helped others. I didn't have what to eat, I didn't take charity. What my uncle lent me I paid back."
She dedicated her life to Yeshiva Meah Shearim in Jerusalem. She started the Zion Dov Ber Torah Fund after she arrived in New York to raise funds for the Yeshiva. Slowly she built up the Yeshiva and then rebuilt it after the bombings in Jerusalem in 1949, and through her organization's fund raising efforts made improvements such as a (mew or improved) kitchen, another floor and a new building.
Every week beginning in 1941 and for 40+ years afterwards, Esther Leibowitz spoke on the radio on WEVD, making appeals for her organization. Some summers she went to Jerusalem to take care of money matters in the ever-expanding yeshiva.
