If you’ve been with me for a while you’ll already know that the Rav’s ‘throw-away’ comments are anything but.

I started unpicking this short piece, below, that I first put up HERE, and I learned a lot of v. interesting stuff, which I will share with you now.

First, the core text from the Rav:

Yesterday we went to the Synagogue of the REMA.

Now, it was clarified that all the family Berland, all those who are called ‘Berland’, they are connected to the REMA, because the grandfather Strulovitz, Moshe ben Chaim, he was the grandson of the REMA.

So there is in Strulovitz, there, Moshe ben Chaim. Moshe ben Chaim, [back] until the REMA.

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I had a cousin who was called Shmuel Strolovitz.

His father was called Moshe Chaim, and he had a bank. He used to live in Vienna, and once i went to visit him, and he gave me $100. He could have given me much more, he had a whole bank. But he gave me $100, and for this I went to him, but afterwards I jumped for joy.

He exploited people[1], so he needed to run away. He travelled to Brazil for seven years. In any case, they were also connected to the REMA, by way of R’ Avraham of Buczacz, the Eshel Avraham.

He had a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, and the family Strolovitz were his grandchildren.

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Translated and excerpted from Shivivei Or 429.

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You should know, that while I often don’t understand exactly why the Rav wants these bits of ‘Jewish history’ explored and aired out, I consider it a privilege to take the Rav’s words seriously, and to try and tease out what is concealed beneath them. That’s how I’ve got to so many of the things that have been hidden from us all, for so long.

Simply, by taking the Rav’s words seriously, and as a starting point, and keeping an open mind.

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So, I was tootling around, trying to find ‘Strulovitzs’ in the REMA’s family tree… And not getting very far.

I decided to just search for ‘Moshe Chaim Strulovitz’ instead, and see what popped up. Whaddya know? I got to a load of articles with headlines like the below, from 2020:

Rabbi Chaim Moshe Strulovics, 73, Lakewood, N.J.

Philanthropist known for kindness and positivity

This particular puff-piece is from Chabad.org. Of course. Let’s quote the rest of it:

The passing of Rabbi Chaim Moshe Strulovics on April 1 as a result of COVID-19 has shocked residents of Lakewood, N.J., where he was a beloved community leader and generous benefactor.

From his humble roots in Hungary, deeply established in Chassidic tradition, Strulovics maintained a close relationship with many Chassidic courts over his lifetime, and personally contributed millions to people and causes across the spectrum of the Jewish community.

As a young man, he received rabbinical ordination and lived in Belgium for several years after his marriage before relocating to Vienna to try his hand at the family’s real estate business.

As his business grew, Strulovics relocated to Lakewood, N.J., becoming a widely known member of the community, eventually founding the Daas Kedoshim-Butshatch synagogue. He was known for his generosity and kindness, and the positive lens through which he viewed the world.

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Gives such a warm feeling in the heart, doesn’t it? Such a shame, that such a big tzaddik like this, died from ‘Covid’.

But when we start to scratch the surface, a whole bunch of the ‘white-washing’ falls away, really fast.

Even with all the censorship, it wasn’t long that I started turning up a whole bunch of other stories about this big tzaddik, that the Rav hinted to when he said this:

He exploited people[2], so he needed to run away. He travelled to Brazil for seven years.

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First up, let’s quote a little from a piece in the Jewish Standard, from August 2010:

Austrian Rabbi Moshe Chaim Strulovics fled to Lakewood in 1998 after being charged with a massive $20 million fraud. He was caught and extradited back to Austria last year, and eventually pleaded guilty to masterminding the fraudulent scheme. Thanks in large part to the intervention of prominent rabbis, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison and was granted release after 10 months served. He was promptly returned to Lakewood and greeted as a hero.

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The VINN site covered the story like this:

Vienna – Satmar Rabbi Instrumental in Successful Release Of Charedi From Austrian Jail – VINnews

Snippet:

The previously iron clad indictment would of seen Strulovitz face a ten year jail sentence.

The sentence was commuted to 30 months in jail of which 20 have been served and the rest served either in investigative detention or rendition.

Mr. Strulovitz a major supporter of Satmar institutions received emotional support from The Satmar rebbe, of Williamsburg Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum Shlita. Mr. Strulovitz was also a strong confidant of the previous Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbauum Zt’l Author Of Beirach Mosha.

Rabbi Tetilbaum expended major efforts and explored different ways to release Strulovitz, including by hiring top lawyers. Nevertheless, everyone feared that the Strulovitz would be sentenced to may years in prison.

Several months ago, Rav Yaakov Ber Teitelbaum, the son of the rebbe and rav of the Sighet beis midrash in Boro Park, and the Horodenka rebbe from Manchester, flew over to assist in the court case.

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Suddenly, the big ‘ba’al chesed’ turned into a major crook, who had some big Chassidic rebbes running interference for him with the courts in Austria.

For some reason, at this stage of the research, any connection with the Baal Shem Tov disappeared, and instead, I started thinking about Al Capone and Bugsy Malone.

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What did the guy actually do? I started to wonder. How big was the fraud? Who was involved?

I got the answer on a German-language court news site, that you’ll have to machine translate to read, and even then it’s a bit clunky.

Bottom line:

“According to the now-finished case, Strulovics stole around 5 million euros. He drove people into personal bankruptcy. He left mothers with their children on the street. He sat for ten years on the run within the Jewish community in New Jersey (USA), and eluded Austrian Justice…He has cheated and been enriched.”

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Before we go on, what’s your own view of all this?

Do you think it’s OK, ‘perfectly acceptable’, that guys with white beards and black hats who are the very close confidants of people like the Satmar Rebbe should be able to cheat 60 non-Jews out of their life-savings, just because they are going to give some of that stolen money to support Toyrah Institutions?

What is the Torah worth, that’s taught in institutions built on disgusting middot and massive chillul Hashems like this?

After all, Thou shalt not steal is clearly one of the Ten Commandments, and last time I checked, not even ‘big chassidic Rebbes’ could change it…

(Unless of course…. They were antinomiam Sabbateans who felt they could invert everything in the Torah, to serve evil instead of good.)

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So, bottom line, this big tzaddik set up a whole bunch of fake shell companies, claiming to be investing in real estate, primarily, with some help from at least three other tzaddikim – and conned tens of non-Jews into putting their money into his shell-companies, before absconding, when they finally figured out they’d been defrauded.

And then, Lakewood helped to ‘hide’ him from the police for 10 years, and then, when he was finally extradited to face justice, the son of the Satmar Rebbe, and a bunch of other tzaddikim, flew over to Austria to pressure the courts to let him off very lightly.

And then, this tzaddik triumphantly returned to Lakewood, where he threw a Seudat Hoda’ah which was attended by most of the leading tzaddikim of Lakewood.

This snippet comes from the now-defunct Failed Messiah site, from February 28, 2011:

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Strulovics stole the life savings of poor non-Jewish Eastern European peasants. He spent time in an Austrian prison for that fraud and refused to testify against his haredi co-conspirators due to mesira, a halakha, Jewish law, that forbids informing on a fellow Jew. After his release, Strulovics was welcomed home to Lakewood with a gala party attended by many of the town’s leading rabbis, including Lakewood rosh Yeshiva Malkiel Kotler.

Now the Satmar rebbe, Zalman Lein Teitelbaum, has come to Lakewood for a visit, and who is sitting in a place of honor near to the rebbe? Rabbi Moshe Chaim Strulovics.

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You can watch videos of the great event, attended by R Aharon Kotler, below:

Seudas Hodaah Chaim Moishe Strulowitz 1 of 2

Seudas Hodaah Chaim Moishe Strulowitz 2 of 2

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The question is, why did the Rav choose to bring attention to this story now?

That’s what I am wondering.

Are we meant to be thinking about all the horrible spiritual corruption and mafia practices that are hiding behind so many corrupt ‘chassidic courts’?

Are we meant to be paying attention to how easy it is to totally whitewash criminals and lowlifes, and turn them into ‘tzaddikim’ and ‘generous philanthropists’, even in our own times?

Are we meant to understand that ‘Covid 19’ was settling scores with a whole bunch of people in the Jewish community, and that so many of the big ‘tzaddikim’ who were being struck down then perhaps were not entirely as ‘holy’ as they were being portrayed?

I don’t know. What do you think?

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Last but not least – I went to check out this tzaddik’s genealogy, to see if he really does get us back to the REMA’s family tree, somehow.

It’s HERE on Geni, this is a screenshot:

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His dad is ‘privated’… But I’ve been doing this so long, even though I can no longer ‘use’ Geni as they’ve made sure to white-out any trees if I log in as a individual user, that I worked my way around it.

Our tzaddik’s great-grandpa is RAV YISROAL DOV WAHRMANN.

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And his father is: AVRAHAM DOVID WAHRMANN (whose own grandfather is the ‘Eshel Avraham’ (1771-1840), Rav  of Buczacz, who has the same name).

This is exactly as the Rav said:

He exploited people[3], so he needed to run away. He travelled to Brazil for seven years. In any case, they were also connected to the REMA, by way of R’ Avraham of Buczacz, the Eshel Avraham.

He had a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, and the family Strolovitz were his grandchildren.

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Of course, the family tree has a whole bunch of those ‘distortions’ we see each time we go back to Sabbatean genealogy.

(Or, ‘chassidic’ genealogy, or ‘Vilna Gaon’ genealogy, or ‘tzaddik’ genealogy, generally. It’s a post for another time, but the entire Jewish leadership was made up of the same, small, group of ‘families with yichus’, many, most of whom, had become hopelessly corrupted by Sabbatian beliefs. But even from one generation to another, you could have the ‘worst Sabbatean’ father being fought by the greatest ‘anti Sabbatean’ son. And vice-versa.)

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In the GENI version of the tree, always suspect, the Eshel Avraham, R’ Avraham David Wahrman of Buczacz (1771-1840) marries the daughter of some ‘Mordechai Weinreb’.

In real life, he married the daughter of his Rav, R Zvi Hirsh Kalo of Buczacz.

Snippet from Wikipedia HERE:

He began studying Talmud as a boy. When he was ten years old, Zvi Hirsch Karo, the author of Neta’ Sha’ashu’im, chose him as a son-in-law. At the age of twenty, he became the rabbi at Yazlovets.

In the Jewish Encyclopedia, Louis Ginzberg and A. Pelginsky dramatically recount his encounter with Hasidism:

The chief event of his life was the struggle awakened in him by the opposition between the Talmud and the Cabala. Unacquainted with the tendencies and modes of life of the Hasidim, Buczacz did not believe in the miracles of their rabbis; and his wife and friends had great difficulty in persuading him to take his sick son to a Hasidic rabbi, Levi Isaac of Berdychev. The latter, however, influenced him to take up the study of the Cabala; but in trying to reconcile these new views—so utterly antagonistic to those of the extreme Talmudists, which he himself had hitherto held—he nearly became insane. The Hasidic rabbi Levi Isaac of Berdychev helped him through this struggle and won him over, to the great joy of the Hasidim, who feared his wide Talmudic learning. Buczacz adopted the Hasidic mode of living; but in his decision of halakic questions was guided, not by kabalistic, but by purely Talmudic, principles.

In 1813 he succeeded his late father-in-law as rabbi of Buchach, and remained in office until his death.

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The Eshel Avraham is also meant to be the Rav’s ancestor.

The over-lap with the Rav’s own experiences, of being first a halachist learning with the Steipler, and only later discovering Breslov, are notable.

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Of course, even this version of events can’t be taken for granted.

On the official site for Galician Jewry HERE, it says this:

Name: 

Avraham David of Buczacz

Born in: 

Nadvirna

Date of birth: 

1770

Date of death: 

1840

Community: 

Nadvirna

Buchach

Died in: 

Buchach

Profession and occupation: 

Rabbi.

Additional information: 

The famous rabbi of Buczacz, Hasidic leader, the author of the book Daat Kdoshim.

He was a pupil of the preacher (magid meisharim) of Nadworna and its Hasidic rebbe Rabbi Tsvi Hirsh Filip. He spent his early years in Nadworna, his native town (Shmuel Hübner, “Di rabonim un admorim in nedverne,” Sefer Nadworna, 24 [Heb.], 123 [Yid.]).

 

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That same site also has an entry for the Nadvorna Rebbe, Tsvi Hirsh Filip:

Tzvi Hirsh Filip of Nadworna

Name: 

Tzvi Hirsh

Last name: 

Filip of Nadworna

Date of birth: 

1737

Date of death: 

1802

Father’s name: 

Shalom Zelig

Children

[?] A daughter of r. Tzvi Hirsh Filip from Nadworna 1850

David Arie Leib Filip 1775 to 1849

Community: 

Nadvirna

Additional information: 

From approximately 1786, the preacher (magid meisharim) and Hasidic Rebbe in Nadworna. Rabbi Tsvi Hirsh was the author of several books including Tsemah Hashem Le-tsvi, Siftei kdoshim, and Mili De-Avot (Wunder, 4:40; Shmuel Hübner, “Di rabonim un admorim in nedverne,” Sefer Nadworna, 23-4 [Heb.], 122 [Yid.]). He was an important figure in the Hasidic movement, among his pupils were Rabbi Mendel of Kosov, the founder of the famous Kosov Dynasty and also the famous Rabbi Avraham David from Buczacz (ibid., 23-4 [Heb.], 122 [Yid.]).

Rabbi Tsvi Hirsh was succeeded in Nadworna by his son Rabbi David Arie Leib Filip (ca. 1775-1849) (Wunder, 4:38) and by his son in law, Rabbi Yitshak from Radzivil, a son of the Magid of Zlochev (Wunder, 4:40).

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Tov.

That’s enough for today.

I still don’t know how they get back to the REMA… Or why that’s been so hidden and obscured. Or how the Rav himself fits into this family tree, exactly.

But when that information is meant to come out, it probably will.

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PS: Last thing, I found this interesting information about the Eshel Avraham on the GalEinai site, HERE.

Snippet:

The Eshel Avraham was born in the year 5531 (1770), one year before the passing of the Magid of Mezritch. He passed away on the 29th of Tishrei, 5601 (1840), in his 70th year.

There were many tzaddikim, including the Eshel Avraham, who, according to their understanding of the Zohar, thought that in the year 5600 the Mashiach would come and redeem the people of Israel. When 5600 passed and Mashiach did not come, the Eshel Avraham was so disappointed that he did not live for more than an additional month, the month of the holidays of Tishrei.

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The Vilna Gaon’s followers also held that 1840 was the year that the Moshiach would come.

When that didn’t happen, many of the GRA’s followers and their family members in Eretz Yisrael became so disheartened, they converted to xtianity.

We covered one of them recently, in this post:

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PPS: I tracked down more about our tzaddik’s father:

https://matzav.com/reb-chaim-moshe-strulovics-zl/:

Snippet:

Born in the city of Kashau, he was a son of Rabbi Shmuel Yitzchok Strulovics. Rav Refoel Blum, the Rebbe of Kashau, served as sandek at his bris.

His father, who lived in Hungary before the Second World War, learned b’chavrusah with Rav Y. T. Dushinsky, the Nitra Rov and others.

In his youth, Reb Chaim Moshe studied at the yeshivos of Nitra, Dushinsky and Satmar and received semicha.

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We have covered ‘Rav Y.T. Dushinsky’ before on the blog.

R’ Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky was ‘parachuted in’ from Chul, to become the head of the Eidah Hareidit in Jerusalem.

Think about how strange that is, for a moment. Until you remember, he comes from very good yichus, connected straight into the core Sabbatean families who were funding the Old Yishuv, including the GRA’s perushim, from Europe.

He died in 1948, and you can read some of his ‘anti-zionism’ comments on the Internet Archive, HERE.

Like, this one:

When in mid November of 1947, it became evident that through zionist and Communist pressure the United Nations would vote for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Rav Dushinsky appealed, in the name of 60,000 Jewish Orthodox residents, to the United Nations by cable and a memorandum following, that Jerusalem should not be included in the Jewish state and should be given international status.

CLICK HERE to read the contents of his cable and memorandum to the United Nations in November, 1947.