Rabbi Karp was a textile businessman by trade—but Torah was his life.

 

Memory Lane: Rabbi Elias Karp

 

For decades, there was an iyun shiur given in Agudas Yisroel on 14th Avenue by Rabbi Elias Karp, a close talmid of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz, zt”l, who had a storied career as a rov in America’s rust belt, and spent decades in learning and askonus in Boro Park of yore. 

New York of Yore

Rabbi Karp was born on the Lower East Side of New York in the winter of the year 1912. His parents were Reb Yisroel and Yetta Karp, who had arrived in the United States from Galicia. 

Tragically, his father passed away shortly after his bar mitzvah—right around the time that Elias entered Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, a place that would remain his identity for life. 

He would remain enrolled in the yeshiva for around ten years—and its influences, and that of his illustrious rebbeim there, would remain with him for life. His primary rebbeim were Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz—whose minhagim he kept for all his life—and Rav Shloime Heiman. His chaverim were Rav Gedaliah Schorr, Rav Avrohom Pam—future Roshei Yeshiva in Torah Vodaath—Rav Nesanel Quinn, and Reb Shia Wilhelm who was also his longtime chavrusa. 

In 1934, he accepted the rabbonus of Degel Israel of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at which time he warned the Jews of Lancaster about ‘indifference’ that was plaguing American Jewry, including the Jews of the area, a speech that was reported in the local paper.   

Boro Park 

Following his discharge from the army, with few chinuch options for the young children, the Karp’s moved to Boro Park. But the fledgling community in Boro Park of the 1940’s likewise did not offer many chinuch options, for many families preferred something different from the existing institutions in Boro Park. 

So, Rabbi Karp, along with a number of other askonim, helped found Bais Yaakov of Boro Park—with his children being among the first enrollees. For decades thereafter, Rabbi Karp remained integrally involved in the mossad that he helped found, serving as the longtime treasurer of Bais Yaakov. 

With his arrival in Boro Park, the Agudas Yisroel on Fourteenth Avenue became a new family for the Karp’s, and he would daven exclusively among his chaverim at the Agudah. He sat the same table with Reb Moshe Sherer, Rav Simcha Elberg, the president, Reb Dovid Turkel, and others.

Part of his joining the Agudah was his involvement in Hatzolah and war-rescue efforts, in which he worked with Mike Tress. “One didn’t have to wealthy to be an askan,” relates a daughter about Rabbi Karp’s decades of askonus in various mosdos and causes. Everyone pooled their resources and talents to make a difference. 

Rabbi Karp was a textile businessman by trade—but Torah was his life. 

His children recall how he would come home after a long day’s work, and spend hours immersed in learning. For more than forty years, he delivered a weekly Shabbos at the Agudah. 

Once he retired, until his last years, he sat and learned with great hasmodoh—along with his lifelong friends and chavrusos, Reb Shia Wilhelm and Rav Nesanel Quinn—in Boro Park’s Lakewood Minyan. In later years, when he could no longer walk to the Agudah, and he was residing at 4701 15th Avenue (in the apartment once occupied by Rav Aharon Kotler) he would daven at the nearby Bobover Shul, and he would have chavrusos coming to learn with him three times a day. 

Rabbi Karp was an excellent orator, and people loved when he got up to speak, because he was concise, and always to the point. “He always had the right words,” recalls a daughter. This also made him a welcome visitor at people’s sickbeds; he would never overstay his welcome, but remain for a short while, and truly lift the spirit of those whom he would visit.

Rabbi Karp was niftar in the winter of 2009 leaving behind a beautiful Torah family. 

 

https://www.boropark24.com/news/memory-lane-rabbi-elias-karp