BDE: Reb Yehoshua Zvi Herschkowits, Z”l, Founder of Tomche Shabbos

Reb Yehoshua Zvi Herschkowits, z”l, founder of the first Tomche Shabbos organization, was niftar at the age of 92.

In a conversation with Hamodia, Rabbi Yanky Meyer, a long-time Tomche Shabbos volunteer, spoke wistfully of the niftar‘s midah of hatzneia leches, raising millions of dollars out of the limelight without any personal remuneration or public recognition. Tomche Shabbos had no dinners, and in fact, the one time another organization honored Tomche Shabbos at their dinner, he was the last to be awarded and most of the crowd had already left, just the way he would have wanted. His organization was so renowned and yet he was an unknown.

Rabbi Meyer emphasized how the niftar built the organization with his bare hands at a time when there were none like it, with branches in other locations spreading forth from it later. He would go from shul to shul collecting donations large and small if necessary. The organization reached a point where it deployed a fleet of 15-16 trucks to deliver food packages, before he came to the conclusion that the organization’s money would be spent more efficiently by replacing packages with vouchers. And he was there at the organization’s garage till the end, overseeing its activities which are sure to continue in the future.

The levayah held Monday at the Tomche Shabbos building at 6225 New Utrecht Ave. Kevurah was in the Satmar chelkah of Washington Cemetery in Deans, N.J.

A full tribute will, iy”H, appear shortly.

Yehi zichro baruch.