Meir Zvi Spitzer, who had met Shlomo in Jerusalem helped Rabbis Goldstein and Carlebach in setting up this yeshiva – on his business card he identifies himself as “Director-Manager” of Yeshiva “Toras Yisrael.”Spitzer also participated with Shlomo in various happenings at the HLPand he helped Shlomo’s organizing in Israel from around 1969�. Aryae Coopersmith recalls: I remember Rabbi Zvi Spitzer coming with Shlomo several times to the House on Arguello Blvd. Sometimes he would stay for a while. Zvi was short, spoke English with a thick Israeli accent, often dressed similarly to Shlomo, or else would wear a suit without a tie. He was very energetic, always seemed to be doing something, would bustle about importantly and tell us about the arrangements he was making for Shlomo in Israel as his manager there. When I asked Shlomo if this was true, Shlomo put his arm around Zvi, flashed a big smile and a “v” with his fingers. “Greatest manager in the world!” he said.[4] n July 25, 1971, Spitzer was involved in organizing “A Religious Woodstock,” a weeklong learning program featuring Reb Shlomo and Rabbi Goldstein at the Diaspora Yeshiva and near Nahum Arbel’s gallery close to the Kotel. Because it took place during the week before Tisha BeAv the singing was without a guitar. Rabbi Spitzer, as the festival’s spokesman, explained that the main purpose was to reach out to American youth visiting Israel. A few hundred youth came, not only from the Diaspora Yeshiva, but even from Meah Shearim.[7]
[1] Meir Zvi Spitzer was 13 years old and studying in the Klozenberger Rebbe’s Yeshiva in Kiryat Sanz in Jerusalem when he first met Shlomo. Spitzer described to his interviewer how Shlomo was dressed with a jacket and tie and charcoal hat. The two of them went together to the tish of the Satmar Rebbe in Jerusalem and the Rebbe gave Shlomo five books from his grandfather on “how to mekarev people with broken hearts and neshamas” and then blessed Shlomo. See Avigayil Witt’s interview with Zvi Spitzer in “The Rebbe and the Rebbe,” Kol Chevra, vol. 7, 2000, 101. [3] For example, he appears in the photos from the wedding of George Gorner and Pamela Klein on March 24, 1969 in Golden Gate Park. See below, Chapter 5. [4] Aryae Coopersmith, personal correspondence, Jan. 4, 2013. [5] Simcha Holtzberg (1924�), a Holocaust survivor, received the Israel Prize in 1976 in recognition of his lifelong dedication to helping wounded soldiers and terrorist victims. [6] On May 30, 1970, Yair was driving a convoy of armored vehicles in the north area of the Suez Canal when his paratrooper unit was attacked, and his companions murdered in a cruel battle. Yair, seriously wounded, was taken captive. His life was saved by amputating his right arm at the elbow. Blinded in one eye and with wounds all over his body, he was returned to Israel on March 29, 1971. See http://www.encuentro-jdcla.org/11vo/concurso/ingles/jurado.asp. A recording of this evening with Reb Shlomo telling a story and singing can be heard at a program of Yedidya Meir at http://www.bhol.co.il/Article.aspx?id=33342. [7] Tzvi Lavi, “A Religious Woodstock in the Capital – by the Dancing Rabbi,” Maariv, July 23, 1971 [Hebrew]. Gil Sadan, “The Dancing Rabbi in Music and Song,” Yediot Ahronot, July 28, 1971 [Hebrew]. Both articles are reproduced in Brand, Reb Shlomele, 153.
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