User:GeraldGlazer/Schuster, Rabbi Meir

Schuster, Rabbi Meir

Founder of Heritage House, Jerusalem, and known as the "Rabbi of the Wall"  for his efforts to persuade Jews visiting the  Western Wall (Kotel Maaravi) of the Temple to study Torah at a yeshiva or the Heritage House.

Stanley Martin Schuster (Hebrew: "Meir Tzvi") was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1943. He was raised on the north side of the City, but his family moved to the west side in 1951. He was educated in Milwaukee Public Schools through 9th grade.

Young Schuster attended the Hebrew School of Congregation Beth Jehudah (2700 N 54th St.), where he came under the influence of the Twerski rabbinical family, most notably  Rabbi  Abraham Joshua Twerski.Twerski,Rabbi  Abraham Joshua  Although not from an orthodox family,  he adopted the orthodox viewpoint and lifestyle during 1954-5. After graduating Milwaukee Steuben Jr HS in January, 1958, Schuster enrolled in a yeshiva in Chicago which subsequently moved to Skokie, IL. After two years, he transferred to the Ner Israel Yeshiva in Baltimore, MD, where he was ordained as a rabbi in 1964.

He  then moved to Jerusalem, Israel, and began recruiting prospective students for local yeshivas. After Israel took control of East Jerusalem in June, 1967, Rabbi  Schuster shifted his recruiting efforts to the Western Wall of the  Temple in   Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

In 1979 Rabbi Meir Schuster established the Heritage House, 2 Ohr Hachaim St., Jerusalem, as a youth hostel devoted to making young Jews more observant. Since that time, about 25,000  young Jews have stayed there and come under Rabbi Schuster's influence.