So, what do Baltimoreans Chavi Barenbaum, Esky Cook, Malky Goldstein, Rebbetzin Fredda Hopfer, Rebbetzin Judy Neuberger, and Chaya Zwick have in common?
Why, Rebbetzin Chana Wesel, of course!
The veteran teacher par excellence taught them all at the Bais Yaakov in Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, New York. The adage, “Teachers live forever in the hearts they touch,” is certainly true of Rebbetzin Wesel. And after having the pleasure of meeting and interviewing her, I understand how this beloved and inspirational protégé of Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan – the founder of the first Bais Yaakov high school and teachers seminary in America – captured the minds and hearts of her students. Indeed, many of her former students – who are scattered around the world – still keep in touch with her over a half-century later.
Here is her story and theirs:
A Close Escape
Rebbetzin Wesel did not start life in America. Born in Vienna, she was only seven years old when her family left. But she clearly remembers the events that foreshadowed their escape.
“It was March, 1938, on Shabbos Parshas Zachor, when Hitler, y”s, marched into Vienna and annexed Austria to Germany,” recalls Rebbetzin Wesel. “We knew then that we had to get out; we were fortunate that we made it out.”
Rebbetzin Wesel explains that the word, “Jude” was painted on all the Jewish-owned stores, and signs were affixed to benches that said Jews were not allowed to sit there. Her mother was afraid for them to use their Jewish names, and her eight-year-old brother was only allowed to wear a cap instead of a yarmulke.
“We heard about all the men who were taken to police stations and never heard from again,” continues Rebbetzin Wesel. “Elderly women and men were forced to clean the streets, which were painted with indelible paint, just to torment them. When my mother found out that hospitals were killing newborn babies, she decided to give birth at home and almost died after a very difficult childbirth. Baruch Hashem, she and the baby survived. Although most people thought things would pass, we decided we had to leave Austria. Things definitely did not pass, and my father was smart to leave.”
America had immigration quotas back then. The quota for Austria was still open, so Rebbetzin Wesel’s parents and all the siblings, who were born in Austria, were able to come to America. Unfortunately, the Hungarian quota was closed, so her Hungarian-born grandfather, who lived with them, had to be left behind. Only years later, after much research, did Rebbetzin Wesel conclude that he had perished.
“We first went to Belgium and left from there to America at 1 p.m. on a Shabbos afternoon,” remembers Rebbetzin Wesel. “We made a kinyan; brought all of our belongings, including food, to the boat before Shabbos; and lit candles there. Since Antwerp is entirely surrounded by water, we walked to the boat on Shabbos. The ocean crossing was no joy trip, I promise you! It took two-and-a-half weeks of throwing up most of the time. It was a freighter, not a passenger ship, but they turned it into one. We left the end of October, right after Succos, and the waves on the ocean were rough.”
A Lifelong Bais Yaakov Career Begins
Upon arriving in America, the passengers were turned over to HIAS and were put into a Jewish homeless shelter. Since there was no Jewish school for girls at the time, Rebbetzin Wesel attended public school.
“When I was 13 years old, my father took me out of public school and put me in Bais Yaakov high school,” notes Rebbetzin Wesel. “I went to Rebbetzin Kaplan’s school starting in 1944 and stayed through seminary. Since she was my teacher, I knew her very, very well. Rebbetzin Kaplan was a fabulous woman, and if I hadn’t been in her class, I don’t know if I would have continued in Bais Yaakov,” says Rebbetzin Wesel. “I am very sensitive, and it took me a while to adjust to a Bais Yaakov school – even though I was in a Jewish school in Europe.”
Back then, high school was a three-and-a-half-year program, and the last half-year was seminary. While Rebbetzin Wesel was in Bais Yaakov Teachers Seminary, her grandmother, who was living with her family, had a stroke that left her paralyzed. Rebbetzin Wesel was only 16, but she stayed home the last year to take care of her grandmother until she was nifteres because she wouldn’t let her mother take care of her by herself. She took English studies during the day and limudei kodesh subjects in night seminary.
Rebbetzin Wesel was 18 when she started teaching fourth and fifth grades in the Bais Yaakov of Ashford Street in East New York, which was actually located in Brooklyn, on the border with Queens. There were only 13 girls (six in one class, seven in the other), so she taught both grades in one room.
“It took me over an hour to get there from Williamsburg every day, and we earned exactly $25 a week,” says Rebbetzin Wesel with a chuckle. “I taught there for two years and then taught at Esther Schoenfeld’s on the East Side for three years. There, I taught fifth grade and then sixth through eighth grades, until the students in East New York begged me to return. They were not very happy with their teachers.”
In elementary school, Rebbetzin Wesel taught every subject: historia, Ivris, and Navi, among others. After that, she started teaching high school girls at Bais Yaakov of Williamsburg, and subsequently, in Bais Yaakov of Boro Park, where she presently teaches.
Touched by Staying in Touch
Over 50 years later, Rebbetzin Wesel is still in touch with many of her thousands of students. Some live close by, in Boro Park, others live in Eretz Yisrael and elsewhere around the world. One even teaches in her school.
“I also keep in touch with the Bais Yaakov of Williamsburg class of ’67,” mentions Rebbetzin Wesel, who says she is closest with this class because it is the only one she taught for two consecutive years. “Every night, at 6 p.m., we have a conference call to learn about shemiras Halashon and emunah, and recite Tehilim together. One of my former students from that class, artist/photographer Esky Cook, even spearheaded a class party, along with fellow classmates Rivky Herz and Violet Mandel, at which she presented me with her Parshas Bereishis clip art book dedicated in my honor.”
Of all of Rebbetzin Wesel’s former students who live in Baltimore, Esky Cook is especially close to her. “I still remember all of Rebbetzin Wesel’s lessons and saved all of her notes that I took in her class, which I would rewrite when I got home,” shares Mrs. Cook. “I have a special feeling toward Chumash Bereishis, which she taught me; it was my favorite class. After so many years, her lessons and the feelings I have for them are still with me today. I wanted to do something special for her, so I put what I learned in her class into a book called Parsha Pictures by Esky on Bereishis and dedicated it to her. We all loved Rebbetzin Wesel and loved everything she taught us. Most of us – over 100 students in my grade – are still close to her.”
Another former student, Chaya Zwick, explains that the Bais Yaakov high school started a Boro Park branch with her grade, but since there wasn’t room for more than ninth and tenth grades, her class commuted to Williamsburg for their junior and senior years. Rebbetzin Wesel started teaching in the Boro Park branch, where she continues to teach today, and the Williamsburg branch eventually closed. Mrs. Zwick’s grade was comprised of a combination of Bais Yaakov of Williamsburg, Boro Park, and Crown Heights students. That is where she met and was taught by Rebbetzin Wesel.
“She was a phenomenal teacher,” says Mrs. Zwick. “It was not an effort to sit in her class at all; it was such a pleasure. She had a confident way of teaching. She never had trouble with the discipline in the class. All the students really, really enjoyed her; I learned so much from her. She was very soft-spoken and refined. When someone like that can hold the class’s attention, you know that she has a lot to say.”
Mrs. Zwick’s classmate, Rebbetzin Fredda Hopfer, still remembers the first time Rebbetzin Wesel walked into her class. “She was younger than most of our teachers who had learned with Sora Schenirer. She was slim and attractive and impeccably but simply dressed. And her sheitel was always perfect. She would walk in with her friendly smile and take off her neat little sweater and drape it over the back of her chair.
“She is a very chashuva woman but she was very down-to-earth and easy to talk to,” continues Rebbetzin Hopfer. “If you studied and knew your work, you would get 100; she was always straight and fair and not out to get you. She had a very clear way of teaching. You were never confused about what she was trying to say. She was always very calm and spoke in a gentle voice and had perfect control of the class in her gentle way.”
Another classmate, Judy Neuberger, concurs: “She was a spectacular teacher: very caring, devoted, and thorough. She is a real mechaneches and explained things very, very well. When I started teaching the parshios that she taught us to my third grade class in Bais Yaakov of Boro Park, I used the notes I had from her class a lot. I actually wrote her a letter to thank her. She is a wonderful, wonderful person.”
Malky Goldstein mirrored these fond sentiments and shares, “I adored her. She was a total inspiration. I was not really interested in learning until I came into her class, and it was like a transformation. She made you love learning by bringing it to life. I still have her notes; I couldn’t get rid of them…. Every time I see her, I get this warm feeling inside me. There is just something about her.”
Another classmate, Chavi Barenbaum, concludes, “It is amazing that we are still on her radar screen so many years later. If you meet her at a simcha or a convention you don’t have to start saying, ‘Remember me?’ She knows who you are. That says a lot!”
The Humorous Side of Teaching
Besides teaching, Rebbetzin Wesel’s busy schedule includes spending time with family and running a successful program in Maimonides Hospital that recruits girls from 12 schools to feed the aged population that cannot feed themselves. Although she is too busy to join her Bais Yaakov of Williamsburg Class of ’71 for its daily 8:30 a.m. learning session, she does try to get together with this class on erev Rosh Hashanah, erev Yom Kippur, and occasionally on Sunday.
Rebbetzin Wesel also does a lot of international travel, and wherever she goes, she scheps nachas from her students, who, she proudly says, all turned out very nicely. The Rebbetzin relates this humorous story that happened one summer when she and a close friend from Belgium vacationed in a Jewish hotel in Andorra, a little country in the Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France:
“A woman, who was probably in her 40s, came over to me and said, “I heard you teach in Bais Yaakov of Boro Park. Can you do me a very big favor, please?” I said, “Anytime!” She said, staring at me, “Can you send regards to Rebbetzin Wesel?”
My friend and I started laughing and I said to her, “I think you are looking at her right now!” She said, “You’re Rebbetzin Wesel?” I said, “Yes, I think that’s my name!” I had taught her decades ago and it was a lot of fun to talk and get friendly again; we were laughing so much. Then, I told her, ‘You know, I’m very flattered! The only teacher you wanted to send regards to was me!’”
Having taught for over half a century, it is not surprising that Rebbetzin Wesel has her share of amusing stories. Here is another one:
“There was one case, which shall remain nameless, where two of our high school students got into a lot of trouble because they were very mischievous, calling up boys. When the school heard that, the administration wanted to throw them out of school. The girls didn’t want to tell their parents that they got into so much trouble, and I knew they came from wonderful homes and were really good kids. They were a little playful, and I didn’t think they should be expelled from school for that reason; they were just having fun. At the time, I was homebound, recuperating in bed, so I arranged with the school that every morning these girls should come to school and then leave to come to my house and take care of me. They did this for a week or two; I was very grateful. They took very good care of me, and I don’t think their parents ever found out; it was just our business, and the school was satisfied that I was taking care of it, instead of informing the parents and shaming them. They were not expelled from school, and both of them married wonderful bnei Torah and turned out to be wonderful wives and teachers.”
Teaching Then and Now
How is teaching different for Rebbetzin Wesel today, compared to her earlier days of teaching? “Basically, the girls are really good and fun,” remarks Rebbetzin Wesel. “The only difference is that the nisyanos, the challenges, they are up against, with the internet and all that’s out there on the street, is much more dangerous than years ago. You have to be very careful today. It’s not easy for these girls to make decisions regarding technology. Kids really have a hard time.”
Rebbetzin Wesel enjoys teaching today as much as ever. “I love interacting with the younger people and feel very privileged to teach,” concludes Rebbetzin Wesel. “I wouldn’t change that for anything in the world – even something that paid ten times as much – because you deal with human beings and you are able to influence them and hopefully put them on the right path. You need siyata d’Shmaya. Without that, you can never be successful. I have a conversation with the Ribono Shel Olam every single day and thank Him for all that He has helped me with, and tell Him, ‘I appreciate that you helped me to form these wonderful young ladies – mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers – into who they are. I feel very humbled!”
