Rabbi Moses J. Burak, longtime spiritual leader of Toronto’s Beth Jacob V’Anshei Drildz Congregation, and a former CJN columnist who wrote “Living Halacha” every week for many years, died May 16 at Israel’s Tel Hashomer Hospital following a lengthy illness. He was 88.
He and his wife had been living in Bnei Brak, where their son-in-law Rabbi Tanchum Becker is the Ozarower Rebbe, since 2004.
A native of Skalat, Galicia (then Poland, and now part of Ukraine) who grew up in Toronto, Rabbi Burak was born to a chassidic family on March 2, 1922. They emigrated to Canada six years later, and his father worked as a melamed to make ends meet.
“His father understood that his son was growing up in Canada, and wasn’t going to impose on him the lifestyle of Poland, but the values – the yirat Shamayim (fear of Heaven), the Torah and the principles he stood for, and the warmth to Judaism – that, he put tremendous emphasis on,” said Rabbi Yosef Ettlinger in a phone interview from Jerusalem, speaking on behalf of the family.
Rabbi Ettlinger, whose wife is Rabbi Burak’s granddaughter, said that Rabbi Burak attended public schools – there were no Jewish day schools in Toronto when he was growing up – and he remembers him as a “very well-educated” and “very cultured” man who played both guitar and piano.
Rabbi Burak, who had a PhD in history, was ordained by Ner Israel Rabbinical College of Baltimore in 1942. He was also a graduate of McMaster University, the Ontario College of Education, the University of Richmond and the Dropsie College (now the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania).
He served Toronto’s Hebrew Men of England Synagogue and several congregations in the United States, and was chancellor of Toronto’s Ner Israel Yeshiva College, as well as principal of Yeshivath Shlomei Emunei Israel before taking on the pulpit at Beth Jacob, where he served from 1962 to 2002.
His biography of the Hatam Sofer was published in 1967.
As well, from 1946 to 1950, Rabbi Burak was rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation in Hamilton, Ont. The shul, which is now Conservative, was Orthodox at the time.
In a 1969 book by Marjorie Freeman Campbell marking the congregation’s 80th anniversary, Rabbi Burak was described as “a very Orthodox rabbi, and a tall dark handsome man with a fine speaking voice.”
Rabbi Moshe Stern of Shaarei Tefillah Congregation told The CJN that when he first came to Toronto 30 years ago, Rabbi Burak was his “shoulder to lean on.
“He was always there for me,” recalled Rabbi Stern, who served on Toronto’s Orthodox beit din with Rabbi Burak.
As well, he said, Rabbi Burak “got along with everybody, whatever their level of observance. He was a friendly man who was very intelligent bookwise and streetwise, and he had a great sense of humour.”
Rabbi Ettlinger recalls Rabbi Burak as “a master at interpersonal relationships,” and Moishe Lichtenstein, Beth Jacob V’Anshe Drildz’s gabbai and a longtime shul member, added that Rabbi Burak was “a great orator, and very well liked by everyone.”
Rabbi Burak leaves his wife Toby; daughters Faigie Becker of Bnei Brak, Libby Feiffer of Cleveland, Hindy Neumann of Baltimore, Helene Gruzd of Edenvale, South Africa, and Yitty Gold of Detroit; as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
