Photo by Mary Bakija, October 10, 2024
Rabbi Moshe Neuman (1930-2022) dedicated his life to spiritual and academic leadership, helping to grow the Bais Yaakov Academy from a small, 27-student school in Corona into a four-story school with 850 students on Metropolitan Avenue in Kew Gardens.
Rabbi Neuman was born in Germany on August 9, 1930. Later in Brooklyn, his professional life initially headed toward tax law, but his talents as a teacher soon became apparent, and he worked as a substitute. He began as a third grade rebbe and assistant principal in Detroit, where he worked for four years. When he married Rivkah Hollander, they moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania. There, Rabbi Neuman served as principal of the Jewish Community Center Day School until 1961, when he accepted the position of principal at Bais Yaakov Academy and moved his family back to New York. He went on to lead the school for more than 50 years.
Former students remembered him as a warm, welcoming, hands-on presence who remembered everyone's name. Above all, they remember learning from him about the development of community as an essential civic responsibility.
On April 15, 2022, Rabbi Neuman suffered a fall at shul on the first night of Pesach. Unfortunately he passed away on May 3, 2022, leaving behind his wife, their sons Rabbi Shomie, Reb Yossie, and Rabbi Nosson, and their daughter Perel Cohen, and Brochie Kramer.
Councilmember Lynn Schulman proposed changing this street name in Rabbi Neuman's honor, and the memorial was dedicated just outside of Bais Yaakov Academy in 2023.
"Committee Report of the Infrastructure Division," The Council of the City of New York, December 20, 2023.
"A Yovel Of Chinuch: Reflections On Rabbi Moshe Neuman zt”l," Queens Jewish Link, May 4 2022.
Schmuel Botnick and Yosef Herz, "The Moment: Issue 979," Mishpacha, September 19, 2023.