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With the passing of Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer, the West Hempstead Jewish Community has lost its pillar of nearly four decades. Rabbi Kelemer was as essential to the town as any of the institutions that reside there. He was the Rav to countless thousands over multiple generations, and no device has been invented that can measure the impact he had.

The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) has proposed a homeless shelter in the heart of the Briarwood neighborhood. The shelter, to be located at 138-50 Queens Boulevard, is part of Mayor de Blasio’s Turning the Tide on Homelessness initiative, which includes installing 76 facilities throughout the city. The idea has angered residents and the local Community Board. “This location is completely inappropriate,” stated a Briarwood resident who requested to remain anonymous. “There is a liquor store barely a block from the proposed site and it is immediately adjacent to a marijuana dispensary! It will never work out well for me and my neighbors.”

When I tell people that Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer zt”l was my rabbi before he came to West Hempstead, they immediately think that I am from Brookline, Massachusetts. After all, Rabbi Kelemer was the rabbi there from the early 1970s until 1983, when he became the rav of the Young Israel of West Hempstead. However, I never lived in Brookline (a Yankees fan in Boston?), so how was Rabbi Kelemer my rav? Simple! The first congregational position Rabbi Kelemer ever held was as the rav in Congregation Sons of Israel – Ahavas Achim of Middle Village, Queens – where I was born and raised!

This past Thursday, January 7, Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal announced his new appointment as the Chair of the Assembly Task Force on Food, Farm, and Nutrition Policy.

Often, when beginning to discuss the life of someone we lost, a speaker or writer will preface his or her words with, “for those who are not very familiar with…” But that is not necessary when remembering the mara d’asra of the Young Israel of West Hempstead, Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer.  Rabbi Kelemer is one of the increasingly few people in our world who transcended every division in Judaism. His reputation was sterling among every sect of Judaism, having made inroads and connections with everyone, whether Ashkenazi or Sefardi, chasidishe or Litvish, Modern Orthodox or Yeshivish, frum or unaffiliated, and everything in between.

While the crushing physical labor of the Egyptian exile left the nation exhausted and short of breath, the emotional toll was in many respects worse. Jewish families were torn apart. The people were demoralized and depressed, stripped of the most basic sense of human dignity and self-respect.