The heroic she’eris hapleitah who rebuilt from the ashes in Boro Park of yore were possessed of unique qualities that enabled them to erect countless Torah institutions atop the ashes of the world they had once known. 

For the Gerer chassidus in Boro Park, the name of Reb Akiva Zilberberg—a scion of a prominent rabbinic family with deep roots in Ger— is synonymous with rebuilding and transplanting that lost world to the streets of Boro Park where they continue to thrive to this day. 

Warsaw

Reb Akiva was born in Warsaw to his father, Rav Avrohom Binyomin Zilberberg, a great ga’on and talmid chochom, in the year 1925. 

The family was prominent in the Gerer chassidus, and Reb Akiva would carry this identity with pride for all his life—a pride that would express itself in the incredible efforts that he would expend on behalf of the chassidus on another continent, America. 

Rav Avrohom Binyomin heeded the exhortation of his rebbe, the Imrei Emes of Ger, to leave Europe in advance of what was to come. He brought his family to America in the year 1938, around the time of Akiva’s bar mitzvah. 

Making His Way in the World 

He began a rabbinic career as a Rov in the small town of Biddeford, Maine. But following the conclusion of WWII, he changed course, returning to Pittsburgh to try his hand at construction and land development. 

He would find success in this endeavor, but his true love remained Torah. Visitors to his office recalled that there were always open seforim before him on his desk.

For years, he kept a weekly learning session with his father, the Pittsburger Rov. His business associates came to appreciate the fact that, no matter what, he would fly back to Pittsburgh to keep this seder with his father. 

Building Torah 

Reb Akiva did not suffice with the love of his own Torah, he dedicated himself to establishing Yeshiva Yagdil Torah for the Gerer chassidus (for decades, the yeshiva served as a home for many families from outside the chassidus as well), and the story of its establishment goes as follows. 

It was during one of his trips to Eretz Yisroel to visit with his rebbe, the Beis Yisroel of Ger, when the two got into a discussion about the development of the Gerer chassidus in North America. The Rebbe noted that “we have no yeshiva there.” 

Reb Akiva immediately asked, “does the Rebbe wish for a yeshiva to be established?” And while the rebbe did not directly answer him, the devoted chossid understood. 

The family recalls that on the seventh day of Pesach, Reb Akiva declared that there would be a cheder, and by the following fall, the yeshiva opened in Boro Park with ten students. 

The dedication that Reb Akiva had to the cause of building Torah in Boro Park cannot be overstated. He would regularly visit the yeshiva, and take an active role in the decision-making. He would make appeals—often accompanied by his friend and confidante Reb Michoel Tennenbaum—at Shtieblach around Boro Park, all for the cause of furthering the cause of Torah. 

He was involved in gashmiyus as well as in the ruchniyus of the yeshiva. He was the one to hire the first melamed in the yeshiva, and was involved in the curriculum, ensuring that it met the highest standards. 

When it came time for Yagdil Torah to purchase its own building, Reb Akiva took a leading role in the renovation project, ensuring that the new yeshiva would have only the best.  

For the consummate builder that Reb Akiva was, there was only one way to proceed following the successful establishment of the cheder Yagdil Torah: upward. 

Once the need for a high school mesivta became apparent, Reb Akiva was at the forefront of building the Gerrer mesivta which continues to stand tall in Boro Park until this very day. The mossad has been led by great men such as Rav Moshe Rottenberg as well as Rav Dovid Olewski, zt”l. 

With deftness and with wisdom, with passion and with love, Reb Akiva Zilberberg built Torah in Boro Park and the fruits of his labor only continue to be seen and felt to this very day.