Boro Park Flashback: The first Chassidishe Shtiebel in Boro Park

On 55^th Street and 16^th Avenue stands a three story building, which served for nearly a century as a the shtiebel of Rav Yosef Yitzchok Parnes, zt”l. having arrived in Boro Park in the year 1920—one century ago.

In the shtiebel—which Rav Yosef Yitzchok insisted had to be on the upper floor, so nothing should be above the Beis Medrash—there hung a “Mishenichnas Adar” sign (featured below) that was itself a century old, having come on and off the ancient walls for close to 100 years. Thus, at the tail end of Adar 2021, we take a look back at the events of the year 1921.

Rav Parnes was born through a bracha of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, after his mother refused to budge from his doorstep until he blessed her to have a healthy child.

In his early days in America, Rav Parnes and his family lived in abject poverty, taking up residence in a basement. A Yid who owned a large wholesale bakery offered him a nice apartment. But when he heard that the man was not a Shomer Shabbos, he said “I would rather remain here, than take from a mechallel Shabbos.”

The man retorted, “don’t you care about your children?!” Rav Parnes answered, “Hashem can help me through a Shomer Shabbos too.” Seeing the sincerity of this tzaddik, the man slowly but surely returned to full Shabbos observance—and his grandchildren carried the aron of Rav Parnes is chassidic garb!

Recognizing the caliber of the tzaddik within their midst, people soon became drawn to the tiny space on the third floor overlooking 16^th Avenue, and to the tzaddik who led from there. There are hundreds of families in America who owe their frumkeit to Harav Parnes who led them with dedication, and so many saw open miracles when they would come to him for brachos.   

“When it came to kedushas Shabbos…that was another world,” recalls a grandson. Anyone who wished to discuss matters of business would do so only until sundown on Thursday evening. In his lifetime he never rented out the storefront for fear that the tenants would succumb to chillul Shabbos which was rampant at the time.

The Rav’s davening was a thing of legend, and people would come from afar to join in his Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur davening before the amud with complete deveikus. One grandson relates that his voice was as sweet when he was in his 80’s and he would still lead the davening, as when he was a young man of forty. “All day on Yom Kippur, he stood barefoot, like a malach Elokim,” describes one account. 

For 47 years, Harav Yosef Yitzchok Parnes graced the neighborhood of Boro Park, unapologetically bringing his brand of Yiddishkeit wherever he went, influencing thousands, and that humble room on the third floor at 5510 16^th Avenue paved the road with beacons of kedushah beginning one century ago.

Memory Lane explores the history of our Boro Park shtetl, and appears once a week.
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