Rabbi Manis Mandel

by Rabbi Shimon Finkelman

A Legendary Mechanech and Tzaddik

Here's what three renowned Torah leaders say about Rabbi Manis Mandel:

"When I have a chinuch-related problem, I think what would Reb Manis say?"

"He was the greatest mechanech I ever knew."

"There is only one Rabbi Manis Mandel. He was unique."”

His greatness was not limited to the classroom or the office. A non-Jewish school bus driver called him a "holy rabbi."”

An auditor for the Internal Revenue Service declared with amazement, “"I never met a person with such absolute integrity!"”

For more than sixty years, Rabbi Mandel was the beloved Menahel of Yeshiva of Brooklyn. Decades after graduation, students still live with his image before them and base their homes on his teachings. Rabbi Mandel had unconditional love and respect for everyone - that was one of the keys to his success. His warmth was matched by his wisdom; he understood and cared about each student and teacher, as if he or she was his very own child. Even in his old age, he stood outside the school building each morning - in cold or heat -- to greet the children as they arrived. If a girl was sent to Rabbi Mandel for coming late, his first question might be, "Did you eat breakfast?"

In this book we will meet "the biggest guiding force of my life"-- Rabbi Mandel's mother, who founded the first Torah schools for girls in America. We'll meet his illustrious rebbeim, Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, the great Torah pioneer; his rosh yeshivah Rabbi Shlomo Heiman, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, and other gedolim.

This warm, riveting book is more than a biography. It is a guidebook in how to be a successful teacher or parent, and how to be a Jew whose every word and deed brings glory to Hashem. In the words of his lifelong friend, Rabbi Yitzchok Scheiner, Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivas Kaminetz in Jerusalem, “"I am certain that reading about Reb Manis zt"l can make anyone a better Jew."