IN TRIBUTE: Rebbetzin Chana Greenbaum a"h

Rebbetzin Chana Greenbaum a"h, who was niftar Monday at age 104, witnessed the building of American Torah Jewry from the ground up. 

She was the last surviving child of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt"l, the visionary who planted Torah in American soil when few believed it could grow there. She grew up in his home, where the dream of building Torah on these shores was lived every day. She saw an America that was barren ground for Yiddishkeit, and she lived to see it blossom beyond anything her father could have imagined.

She was the wife of Rav Dov Greenbaum zt"l, and together they were builders in their own right. They helped turn Monsey and its neighboring communities from small, uncertain beginnings into thriving centers of Torah and chesed. Rav Dov took charge of Yeshiva of Spring Valley in the early 1970’s, and turned it into a true chinuch empire. In time, Rav Gruenbaum became a great activist and spokesman for the Rockland Jewish community, and a great Torah builder. She stood by his side in all his important endeavors.  

Rav Gruenbaum’s devotion to Klal Yisrael was so widely felt that he was eulogized on the floor of the United States Congress, a rare tribute for a rov and mechanech. She carried his legacy with quiet dignity for over four decades after his passing.

In her later years, she made her home in Eretz Yisrael. Earlier this year, she lost her youngest sister, Rebbetzin Shulamis Schiff a"h, and with the two sisters’ passing, a living link to the earliest days of the American Torah renaissance is gone.

She leaves behind an incredible legacy, including the five children she raised and the hundreds of descendants who now fill batei medrash, yeshivos, and Jewish homes across the world. 

Yehi zichrah baruch.