By COLlive reporter
Photos: Aharon Gellis/COLlive
The 75th birthday of Rabbi Avrohom Gerlitzky, a veteran teacher and beloved maggid shiur, was marked with a grand party on Tuesday at Agudah Shul in Crown Heights.
It has become a tradition among his students at Oholei Torah Zal since 1981 to go all out in celebrating the day with a lavish farbrengen, fliers and posters in Crown Heights and gifts.
Last year, R’ Avrohom marked his 50th year of teaching students at Oholei Torah, and each year, his students arrange this lavish celebration as a small token of their appreciation for his warmth, kindness and dedication to his students for decades.
“His students are like his children,” they told COLlive.com. “He puts his heart and soul into teaching, and he has thousands of grateful students all over the world.”
The party was held at Agudah Shul in Crown Heights, where Rabbi Gerlitzky’s students gathered to greet him with music, singing and dancing, l’chaims, as well as a festive birthday cake.
The bochurim prepared a special gift to present to Rabbi Gerlitzky which included a luxurious recliner, which will be delivered to his home, the bochurim said. Another meaningful gift was a special Teshura- memento of all the Rebbe’s responses to Reb Avrohom throughout the years was printed and distributed to all the participants.
The farbrengen continued with surprise guests stopping by to give birthday wishes to the Rabbi, including alumni from the past 50 years. One special guest was an alum of Reb Avrohom’s first class which he taught 50 years ago, R’ Neimark, who spoke about R’ Avrohom and wished him many more years of teaching and inspiring students.
Throughout the event, Reb Avrohom’s phone was ringing non-stop with phone calls and video calls from friends and family from around the world wishing him a happy birthday.
R’ Avrohom was moved by the great outpouring of love and well wishes, and remarked that he has never had such a beautiful birthday Farbrengen as he had today.
The organizers thanked the event sponsors: COLlive, KT2 for the shwarma, Sushi Spot for the sushi, First Quality products for the paper goods, and Kahan’s Superette for the snacks and drinks.
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Thank u to all the amazing Talmidim that shower him with this amazing party year after year after year !!
May we all merit to party in the Bais Hamikdosh hashlishi bekoroiv mamash!!
This is absolute magnificent. To see so many bochrim have so much love for their maggid shiur is so precious. A real testament to the maggid shiur. May he be bentched with gezunt un lange yahren and unending naches from his talmidim!