About the Rebbe
The Ostrov-Kalushiner Rebbe of Yerushalayim
At the heart of Beis HaMedrash Ostrov-Kalushin stands a Rebbe, and a person feels it before he is told it. Those who come find a warm place to grow closer to Hashem, and the closeness does not stay behind when they leave. It goes with them. The beis medrash is not large in the way the world counts large. It is a place where every face is known, and every Yid who walks in is received as one of the kehilla.
The Rebbe’s Derech
Walk in and the first thing that meets you is the achdus. In three years the beis medrash has filled with chevra, with yungeleit and talmidei chachomim, Yidden who come to daven with hislahavus and with a sweetness that is hard to put into words. There is a neginah here that carries the Torah and the tefilla. A man can find many shuls. This is a place he comes to find the sweetness in his own avodah.
And it is built to be real. A person can walk in and be himself, daven where he is holding, say it plainly and without fear. The Rebbe asks one thing above all, that every single chassid find what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants from him, and find it b’simcha. It is a place for kinderlach too, heilige kinder who grow up with a Rebbe and a Rav, mekushar to Torah and to avodas Hashem from the time they are small.
How the Beis Medrash Came to Be
The beis medrash was established three years ago, to carry forward the legacy of the Ostrov-Kalushiner Rebbes, and to fulfill the vision of the dynasty’s founder, Reb Naftuli Aryeh Spiegel זצוק"ל, who taught that the road across the ocean to America was, in truth, the road back to Yerushalayim, to bring the chassidus home to the holy city. What was carried to America is now planted again in Yerushalayim.
The Kehilla, and the Five Towns
The Ostrov-Kalushin name is carried on two continents by one family. The Rebbe’s father, Reb Dovid Spiegel זצוק"ל, led the Bais Medrash of Cedarhurst in the Five Towns for decades. Today the dynasty is carried by two brothers: Reb Yosef Spiegel שליט"א, the Ostrov-Kalushiner Rebbe of Cedarhurst, who leads the beis medrash there, and Rav Naftuli Aryeh Spiegel שליט"א, in Yerushalayim. One mesorah, two batei medrash, held between them across the ocean.
With the Chassanim
For many years the Rebbe has taken chassanim under his wing through the first stage of marriage, not only those of the kehilla but any young man in the area who comes to him. He teaches them derech Hashem, the chashivus of building a home, so that no young couple walks the early road alone. They have someone to turn to, someone to hear them.
Through the day the Rebbe makes himself available to those who come to him, members of the kehilla and others, for an eitzah, a brachah, his counsel, or a few minutes of his attention.
Where the Rebbe Learned
The Rebbe learned:
- under his father, the Ostrov-Kalushiner Rebbe זצוק"ל
- under the Chernobyl Rebbe שליט"א
- under the Gaava”d of Yerushalayim, Rav Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss זצ"ל
- under HaRav Shamai Kehas HaKohen Gross שליט"א, Dayan on the Badatz Machzikei Hadass
- under his father-in-law, the Tolna Rebbe of Yerushalayim שליט"א
The Yichus
View the chain of the dynasty
Two lines run back through the generations and meet in the Rebbe shlita: the Spiegel line on his father’s side, and the Leifer line of Nadvorna and Pittsburgh on his mother’s. By marriage the chain reaches the Chozeh of Lublin and, in this generation, the Tolna Rebbe of Yerushalayim.
Father’s line · Spiegel / Ramraz
Mother’s line · Leifer / Nadvorna / Pittsburgh
The two lines meet in the marriage of Rabbi Duvid Spiegel זצוק"ל and Devora Esther.