{{short description|Russian-born rabbi}} {{Infobox Jewish leader | honorific-prefix = Rabbi | name = Simcha Wasserman | title = | image = | caption = | synagogue = | synagogueposition = | yeshiva = Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon (Los Angeles) | yeshivaposition = Rosh yeshiva | organisation = | organisationposition = | began = | ended = | main_work = | predecessor = | successor = | rabbi = | rebbe = | kohan = | hazzan = | rank = | other_post = Rosh yeshiva, Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon (Jerusalem) <!---------- Personal details ---------->| birth_name = Elazar Simcha Wasserman | birth_date = 1899 | birth_place = Russian Empire | death_date = October 29, {{death year and age|1992|1899}} | death_place = Jerusalem, Israel | yahrtzeit = | buried = | burial_place = Har HaMenuchos | nationality = | denomination = Orthodox Judaism | residence = | dynasty = | parents = | father = Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman | mother = Michla Wasserman | spouse = Feiga Rachel Abowitz | children = | occupation = | profession = | alma_mater = | semicha = | signature = | native_name = שמחה וסרמן | native_name_lang = he }} '''Elazar Simcha Wasserman''' ({{Langx|he|אלעזר שמחה וסרמן}}; 1898 - October 29, 1992)<ref>Names and authorities database of the National Library of Israel.</ref> was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva. Born in the Russian Empire, he was sent before World War II to the United States by his father, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, to improve the level of Jewish education there. He established yeshivas in the United States and Israel. He was described as "a pioneer educator".<ref name=RavSimW.LA92/>
==Early life and family== Elazar Simcha Wasserman was born in the Russian Empire,<ref name=RavSimW.LA92/> the eldest of the three sons born to Elchonon Wasserman and his wife Michla. He was a nephew of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzensky.<ref>{{cite web |website=Torah Umesorah |url=http://www.chinuch.org/gedolim_yahrtzeits/Cheshvan |title=2 Cheshvan}}</ref> He married Feiga Rachel, the daughter of Rabbi Meir Abowitz, Rav of Novordok, and his wife Chana.{{sfn|Sorasky|2009|pp=185–7}}
Except for him and his brother David, all his birth family died during World War II. He and his wife, who outlived him, had no children.
==Career== Although most of his career was in the United States, Wasserman established his first rabbinical seminary in Strasbourg in 1933.<ref name=RavSimW.LA92/> During the 1940s Wasserman strengthened<ref name=RavSimW.LA92/> Detroit's Yeshiva Beth Yehudah and served as dean. It had been founded in 1914 as a Talmud Torah and renamed as a yeshiva in 1925.
==Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon== Two of the schools founded by Wasserman were named Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon, one in the United States, the other in Israel.
The school in Los Angeles included elementary, secondary, college, and post-graduate classes, with some students "from as far as Arizona and Colorado".<ref name=RavSimW.LA92/> Ten of the initial students at the college and post-graduate school were sent from Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, handpicked by Rabbi Gedalia Schorr.<ref name=OhrSom195x>{{cite web |url=https://ohr.edu/special/ravweinbach/RememberingRavWeinbach.pdf |title=Rav Mendel Weinbach |page=13}}</ref> This was well before the school attained 300 students.<ref name=RavSimW.LA92>{{cite news |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-05-we-1397-story.html |title=Rabbi Wasserman, a Pioneer Educator, Dies |author=Mathis Chazanov |date=November 5, 1992}}</ref>
==Outreach== Among the keywords describing Wasserman's methodology are patience and simplicity:<ref>{{cite book |isbn=978-0899-06116-0 |title=Reb Simcha Speaks: Rabbi Simcha Wasserman's Insights|author1=Akiva Tatz |author2=Yaakov Branfman |year=1994}}</ref> "Whatever is within my ability to fulfill I do, and whatever I can’t accomplish I don’t worry about."<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=Five Towns Jewish Times |url=http://www.5tjt.com/something-positive-for-a-change |title=Something Positive For A Change |author=Yochanan Gordon |date=October 27, 2013}}</ref>
In 1970 he wrote an article for ''The Jewish Observer'' titled "Memorandum To: Concerned individuals From: Rabbi Simcha Wasserman Re: Reaching out"<ref name=RavSimW.JO70>{{cite magazine |magazine=The Jewish Observer|url=https://agudah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/JO1970-V7-N01.pdf|title=Memorandum To: Concerned individuals From: Rabbi Simcha Wasserman Re: Reaching out |author=Rabbi Simcha Wasserman |date=November 1970 |pages=3–5}}</ref> in which he encourages more outreach "to the entire Jewish community," adding that "Unless the public is Torah educated, the Yeshiva contributor will soon be supplanted by the philanthropist whose list of priorities does not even include Yeshivos."
He was not a fan of "new and improved" when it came to Judaism: "... the plastic potato. It looked like a potato, smelled like a potato, even tasted like a potato .. the only significant difference .. was that when you planted a plastic potato, it didn’t grow, it couldn’t reproduce, it was sterile."<ref name=OhrSom195x/>{{rp|p.49}}<ref>{{cite book |isbn=1583308172 |page=158 |title=Inspiring Insights Into the Parashah |quote=As Rabbi Simcha Wasserman ... a potato created in a laboratory may ... |author=Zadok Shmuel Suchard |year=2005}}</ref>
==Works== While in Israel he facilitated the reprinting of his father's works; some of his own writings were printed in a booklet, ''Simchat Elazar''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://winners-auctions.com/en/content/letter-rabbi-elazar-simcha-wasserman |title=Letter from Rabbi Elazar Simcha Wasserman}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== *{{cite book |last= Sorasky |first= Aaron |author-link=Aharon Sorasky|year=2009 |title= Reb Elchonon |location= Brooklyn, NY |publisher= Mesorah Publications, Ltd. |isbn=978-0-89906-450-5}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasserman, Simcha}} Category:1899 births Category:1992 deaths Category:American Orthodox rabbis Category:Israeli rabbis Category:20th-century American rabbis Category:Burials at Har HaMenuchot