The Bostoner Rebbetzin Remembers

Rebbetzin Raichel Horowitz of Boston/Har Nof recalls Jewish life in Poland, America and Israel

The word “Boston” conjures many images in the minds of Americans. To Jews, it has its own flavor. It means chassidic fervor, unbounded love for fellow Jews, and an inability to say no to a Jew in pain or need. The Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Horowitz, is revered in America and Israel for all these characteristics. The community he created in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem is recreating all the holiness and love that he and his family still maintain in New England. His Boston spans the world.

But Boston has a Rebbetzin as well as a Rebbe. This great lady, who prefers the trenches of service to the spotlight of honor, has now told her own personal story. It begins with her holy forebears in Europe and continues through years of dedication unimpeded by poverty in the United States. First and foremost, her home always belonged to the sick and needy. Whenever therewas not enough money -- the guests always came first.

She and her husband inherited traits of love and responsibility. From those treasures, they built an empire of Torah, prayer, and service.

In this winning autobiography, the Rebbetzin remembers what it was like and how it happened. We join her in the those moments -- painful and ecstatic -- that helped make Jewish history. Filled with rich memories and never-before-published pictures, this is a book that will thrill and excite, that will warm and challenge, that will spur ambitions and aspirations -- because great things can be accomplished if the will and passion are there.

Most of all, however, this is a book that is a pleasure to read, to discuss, to think about -- to remember.