Boro Park’s ‘Weissmandl Way’ Expanded From 1 to 10 Blocks

The street renamed in Boro Park for Harav Michoel Ber Weissmandl, zt”l, the hero of hatzalah efforts during and after WWII, was expanded Thursday to include a much larger portion of 50th Street, from 10th Ave. to 20 Ave.

The change, signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio among 56 other street renamings, comes less than a year after the stretch from 14th to 15th avenues was named for Harav Weissmandl, who was a son-in-law of the Nitra Rav and Rosh Yeshivah, Harav Shmuel Dovid Ungar, Hy”d.

Councilman David Greenfield, a Democrat representing the area, sponsored the bill that renamed the area “Rabbi Weissmandl Way.” The city will install a permanent street sign commemorating the Rav and his extraordinary life, along with a ceremony, to be announced soon.

Harav Weissmandl, who was niftar in 1957, dedicated his life to saving Europe’s Jews by leading the Working Group in its attempt to delay the mass deportation of Jews, attempting to stop the “Final Solution” and reestablishing the Nitra Yeshivah in Mount Kisco after the war.

De Blasio’s new law also changed the names of a slew of New York City streets in honor of slain police officers and firefighters, heroes and cultural figures.

The mayor co-named a street in Brooklyn in honor of detectives Rafael Ramos Wenjian Liu, two police officers killed in December by an anti-police protester as they sat in their cruiser.

Another street renaming honors the memory of Lt. Matt Ambelas, a 14-year FDNY veteran killed while putting out a fire in Williamsburg last year. Two months before his death, Ambelas helped save Mendy Gotlieb, a 7-year-old Williamsburg boy who became trapped in a roll-up gate.

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the February 6th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.