Alumnus visits Mayanot after 23 years of being a shliach and inspiring German Jewry.
(Rabbi Yitzchak Mendel Wagner is one of the first German-born
rabbis to be serving in Germany since the Holocaust, here he is with his family, in the home of R’Shemtov.)Mayanot was very excited to welcome back, Rabbi Yitzchak Mendel Wagner, during
his visit to Jerusalem, after all the inspiring work he and his family have done
over the past two decades. He is one of the first rabbis ordained in
post-Holocaust Germany and the first in Krefeld in 70 years, who has made major
inroads in German Jewish revival.
“We are very proud of all of our alumni”, said Rabbi Kasriel
Shemtov, executive director of the Mayanot Institute. “But
especially of Rabbi Wagner who came to Mayanot 23 years ago with a thirst to study
everything about Judaism. You could see from the very beginning it was not just
for himself but to strengthen the community back in Germany and around the
world.”
Shemtov added, “Many students have come to Mayanot after
attending his international lectures. They have come to us and said, ‘if
someone who started with little Jewish education could learn so much and become
so passionate and instrumental, then so too, could I find a place for myself at
Mayanot’.”
After nearly 23 years, Rabbi Wagner came back to visit Mayanot,
where he studied in 1999. He also came
to visit Gregor Grafmann, a current student who he sent from Krefeld, and
who has been studying at Mayanot for the past five months.
Rabbi Wagner shared his inspiring life story and the stirring
saga of Germany’s Jewish revival with the students of Mayanot. He told how
after studying and receiving smicha, he decided to help revitalize German
Jewry and become a Jewish community leader in modern-day Germany.
Rabbi Wagner shared with the bochrim, “The best
revenge against the Nazis is the return of proud Jews and the resurgence of
Jewish identity on the streets of Germany,” adding that it was at Mayanot that
he gained the tools “to learn not only how to survive in a spiritual desert,
but to make it blossom with Yiddishkeit.” **
Gregor shared, “I am so grateful to my shliach, Rabbi Wagner,
for sending me to Mayanot, it has literally enriched my life in so many ways and
I have gained more then I could have dreamed from being here.”
“It is moving to see Rabbi Wagner’s impact” Rabbi Shlomo Gestetner, Dean of the Mayanot Institute commented. “To see the power of Torah and the Rebbe’s teachings inspire one individual who then becomes a leader and a catalyst for change in Krefeld Germany. Rabbi Wagner is one of thousands of Mayanot students who are impacting world Jewry for the better.”
(From
Left: R’Shemtov, Hillel Shmuel
Naydych (President of the shul), R’Wagner, Gregor Grafmann) 
(Rabbi Wagner’s community
in Krefeld, in which Gregor Grafmann’s father is the shuls Vice President)