10:38 PM
Gil Student
I don't have any famous rabbis in my family history, at least not that I know of. But I once found some sort of connection -- a world-famous rabbi who was the maggid of my paternal grandparents' town in Poland (over a hundred years before they were born). One of the leading antagonists of Chassidim in the late eighteenth century was R. David Makover. He was the author of the anti-Chassidic tracts Zemer Aritzim and Shever Poshim (see vol. 2 of Mordechai Willenski's Chassidim U-Misnagdim).
R. David ben Benzion Yechezkel was the maggid (preacher) in the town of Makov, hence his title R. David Makover. My grandparents came from a town named Makow Masovietski. I assumed that this was the same Makov as R. David's and some historically-minded friends agreed with me bu one dissented. I recently asked Prof. Shaul Stampfer about this and he responded that in Pinkas HaKehilot - Polin, vol. 4 p. 265 it says that R. David the author of Zemer Aritzim was from Makow Masovietski.
I remember hearing that Chassidic legend has it that as punishment for R. David Makover's anti-Chassidic attitude, the entire town became Chassidic. However, I was reading Me-Rachok Kokhav Menatznetz, the recently published memoirs of Mordechai Ciechanower, a survivor from Makow (and a distant cousin of mine), and he writes about the different shuls from his youth: There were two batei midrash and shtiblakh for Gerrer Chassidim, Amshinover Chassidim and Alexander Chassidim. He writes that he used to attend the Misnaged beis midrash with his father.
R. David ben Benzion Yechezkel was the maggid (preacher) in the town of Makov, hence his title R. David Makover. My grandparents came from a town named Makow Masovietski. I assumed that this was the same Makov as R. David's and some historically-minded friends agreed with me bu one dissented. I recently asked Prof. Shaul Stampfer about this and he responded that in Pinkas HaKehilot - Polin, vol. 4 p. 265 it says that R. David the author of Zemer Aritzim was from Makow Masovietski.
I remember hearing that Chassidic legend has it that as punishment for R. David Makover's anti-Chassidic attitude, the entire town became Chassidic. However, I was reading Me-Rachok Kokhav Menatznetz, the recently published memoirs of Mordechai Ciechanower, a survivor from Makow (and a distant cousin of mine), and he writes about the different shuls from his youth: There were two batei midrash and shtiblakh for Gerrer Chassidim, Amshinover Chassidim and Alexander Chassidim. He writes that he used to attend the Misnaged beis midrash with his father.
