Beyond the Bricks: Baal Shem Tov Shul in Wesley Hills Completes Replica of Namesake in Medzibuzh

By: Yitzy Fried  

Eighty years after experiencing the worst calamity to befall Klal Yisroel in modern times, five heroic Holocaust survivors—rebuilders from the horrific Churban—gathered in Wesley Hills to rebuild from the rubble. This time literally. 

The central theme of the “Baal Shem Tov Shul”, arguably one of the most unique shul structures in America, is to draw on our rich past to inspire the present and the future. Thus, these heroes of our rebirth placed bricks from the notorious “Miła 18” bunker in the Warsaw Gheto into the Shul structure, where they will stand as an everlasting memorial to our glorious past as the kehillah continues to write chapters of a bright future. 

But according to Reb Dovid Lichtenstein, one of the founders of the kehillah, the Shul’s influences of the past go back to the founder of the Chassidic movement, Rebbe Yisroel Ba’al Shem Tov, zy”a. He spoke with Rockland Daily about the short history of the Shul, and its incredible structure—modeled closely after the actual shul of the Baal Shem Tov in Medzibuzh.  

“We began as a small kehillah in Wesley Hills two decades ago, starting out in the Baruch family basement for a supposed two years, which turned into twenty blessed years of growth,” he recalls. 

As they were taking this next step in their journey as a community, it came time to formally name the kehillah. “Something like 90% of Jews of the world today come from Chassidim, and no one was full of more ahavas Yisroel and achdus than the Baal Shem Tov—we figured we would name the shul the Baal Shem Tov Shul as a center that would devote itself to these foundations of love for a fellow Yid, and infuse joy into avodas Hashem in the way that the Besht taught. This means presenting the most fascinating Torah, the most beautiful davening, and the most modern playground for the children…,” said a member of the kehillah.  

“There is something special about building something from scratch,” says R’ Isaac Gross, a mispalel. “We can create it in our own vision—and if the shul is named for the Baal Shem Tov, why not build the shul as an exact replica of his own shul in Medzibuz. 

Chaim Raice was the builder of this project, and he recalled the journey of erecting this magnificent edifice. “It’s not easy to erect a structure built to look like it’s from the 1700’s,” Chaim said. “In middle of the process, we brought a designer on board who gave us the following guidance: ‘Settle on your narrative, and let that guide your every decision.’” 

For the construction team, that meant procuring hand-hewn stones for the façade, a bench which is actually from 1619, finishing the floor in a style that would have been common in the 1700’s, beams from thick timber—all the while closely adhering to the renderings and replications from the original Shul where the Baal Shem Tov davened. All along the path to the Shul are actual gas lamps illuminating the way. “They are still tweaking and perfecting things even now,” Chaim says. 

But there was another element that they wanted to incorporate. “The Baal Shem’s people took a detour through the Holocaust,” says R’ Dovid Lichtenstein. “The Churban snuffed out a vibrant Jewish life, and destroyed thousands of Shuls—including countless magnificent structures built in the 1500’s and 1600’s! So, we brought in bricks from the rubble of about a dozen Shuls in Poland, and inserted them into our façade where they have come alive once again.” 

The legendary writer, R’ Hillel Seidman, wrote a diary that survived the Warsaw Ghetto liquidation. In it, he wrote, “If only I could take one stone from here, I would take it to Eretz Yisroel… these are the holiest stones in the world; for no stones are soaked with more Jewish blood.” 

As the sun set over yet another Tisha b’Av in galus, hundreds of Monsey residents gathered to watch as five Holocaust survivors transplanted seven bricks from a bunker in the Warsaw Ghetto which has recently been discovered. Two of them had been forced by the Nazis to clean up the rubble eighty years ago—when all was thought to have been lost. Today they came to pass the torch to new generations, entrusting them with the sacred duty to draw on the past to inspire the future.