Reply To: Ahavas Yisrael for those in YU/the MO community (Ask me anything)

ArivahDeRah: I grew up in a YI whose Rav’s shver was Irving Bunim, ZTL. He had sterling chassideshe yichus including the Noam Elimelech, the Rebbes of Ropschitz, and the B’nai Yisosschor. He was a musmach of Chaim Berlin and served as a gabbai to the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner, ZTL.
That Rav who served his shul for half a century personified the MO ethos in terms of himself being a talmid chacham but also working tirelessly in the political sphere to establish a legal structure in NYS for enforcement of Kashrus law statewide. While doing all this, his endearing personality, brought many families (including my own) closer to Yiddeshkeit. Like many shuls in that era, that YI (once among the largest) suffered a declining membership but through a merger is today experiencing a renaissance with a thriving membership of young torah-observant New Yorkers.