IN TRIBUTE: Reb Gershon Morgenstern, Pillar of Monsey Community

YS GOLD 

Over the weekend, the Monsey community lost a pillar of brilliance and a supreme eved Hashem with the passing of Reb Gershon (George) Morgenstern at the age of 92. He fell in love with Monsey as a single young man, and he would devote his life to the spiritual and material welfare of the Monsey community over the ensuing decades. 

He was a child of 1930’s Brownsville—a time and place where it was not at all assured that a boy would follow the path of Torah and Yiddishkeit. Indeed, that is what happened to most of George Morgenstern’s friends, while he forged a path of commitment to Torah and its values. 

He learned in Yeshivas Toras Chaim in East New York which was founded by Rav Yitzchok Schmidman, and later in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin in Brownsville, where he learned under the great and illustrious Rav Yitzchok Hutner, and the mashgiach Rav Avigdor Miller, zt”l. 

Newly married to his longtime akeres habayis, Mrs. Faigy Morgenstern, he assumed rabbinic positions in Lowel and Lynn, Massachusetts. He became known for giving his heart, his soul, and his listening ear to his constituents. From there, he moved to the business world, where he became a successful, visionary, and pioneer in the computer programming industry. 

The Morgenstern’s were early pioneers in the fledgling Monsey community, and Reb Gershon became a supporting pillar of its shuls and institutions. He also forged close connections with a number of prominent Monsey rabbonim and Torah leaders. 

Noted author, Reb Sruly Besser, is a grandson by marriage. He shared that “My grandfather—who resided in Monsey for close to six decades was a true pillar of Monsey and builder of the community in every sense. A longtime chairman of the board at Yeshiva of Spring Valley, he built the building for the girl’s division… as well as numerous Monsey shuls.” 

Reb Gershon—who lifted himself up from a childhood in Brownsville into a force of determination and generosity against all odds—did all of this with humility and hatznei’ah leches. 

“All that mattered to him was that his children should follow the path of Torah, and live as bnei Torah,” relates Rabbi Besser. 

He indeed merited greatly illustrious children who will continue to admire the legacy of their patriarch, Reb Gershon Morgenstern—a true pillar and pioneer of the Monsey community. 

Yehi zichro baruch.