Oholei Torah Alumnus Helps Uncover a $200,000 Find in Ford’s Archives

A call to an Oholei Torah alumnus led to a discovery in Ford Motor Company’s archives that is saving the Yeshiva approximately $200,000 and six to eight weeks of work.

At 402 Eastern Parkway, Oholei Torah is moving forward with plans for the new Oholei Torah Rabbinical Campus, with the goal of opening for the 5789 shnas halimudim.

This past summer, Oholei Torah retained New York Major as the owner’s representative and contractor, and a leading architectural firm, FMA, which has extensive experience designing Yeshivos. NYM assembled a team of engineers, interior designers, and other specialists to bring the vision for the campus to life. Planning and design are expected to continue for approximately four more months.

As the team assessed the existing building, locating its original structural drawings became a crucial part of the planning process. Oholei Torah hired a company to search for the records through the New York City Department of Buildings. To the team’s surprise, the search yielded some documents, but not the original plans.

Since the Department of Education had rented the building for approximately 40 years for use as a public school, Oholei Torah then contacted the School Construction Authority, which manages construction and renovations for city schools. The SCA shared additional records, including plans from past renovations, but the original structural drawings the team needed most remained missing.

Without the original plans, the team faced the prospect of spending weeks piecing together information that had once existed on paper. Engineers would need to conduct extensive measurements, scans, structural probes, and testing before key design work could move forward.

Then, during a meeting, a familiar name came up. Rabbi Mendel Blau, Roish Moissed, mentioned to Rabbi Yehoshua Lustig, Menahel K’lali, that their former Beis Medrash classmate, Shlomo Kleinman, works at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. Since Ford had originally built 402 Eastern Parkway in 1916 as a showroom, perhaps its archives still held the original plans.

Rabbi Lustig reached out to Shlomo, who was more than happy to help.

“I have such great memories of my years in Oholei Torah Beis Medrash,” Shlomo said. “It means a lot to me to play a part in preparing a new Zal for the next generation of Oholei Torah bochurim.”

Shlomo contacted his colleague, Leslie Armbruster of the Ford Motor Company Archives department. She searched Ford’s extensive archives and found what the team had been seeking: the building’s original plans. More than a century later, those drawings are proving invaluable to the team preparing the building for its new use.

“I was delighted to find the drawings of your building, and am happy to have been able to save your organization both time and money. It’s a lovely reminder of the importance of the work that my team and I do in the Ford Motor Company Archives,” said Leslie.

The impact was substantial. According to Yiddi Nussensweig of New York Major, the drawings are saving approximately $200,000 and six to eight weeks of investigative work. While scanning, physical probes, and testing will still be needed, the original plans significantly reduce the extent of that work by giving engineers a clearer understanding of the building’s structure.

The campus is planned to span more than 100,000 square feet, with three large Zals, a state of the art mikvah, classrooms, dedicated rooms for mashpiim, a student lounge, and additional spaces to support the daily learning and needs of the bochurim.

The project comes as enrollment continues to reach record levels. This year, Oholei Torah welcomed 540 Beis Medrash talmidim, an increase of 75 over the previous year. Despite considerable efforts to expand capacity, more than 100 applicants still had to be turned away. The new campus is being planned to meet that growing demand and provide room for the years ahead.

“We are deeply grateful to Ford Motor Company for generously responding to our request and making these historic plans available to us,” said Rabbi Lustig. “We especially appreciate the support of Ford Archives and Leslie Armbruster, along with Shlomo Kleinman for helping connect us with the right team. Ford’s generosity has saved the Yeshiva valuable time and resources and helped move us closer to opening the new campus.”

The plans once used to build a showroom are now helping prepare a home for Torah, making room for Oholei Torah’s future.