In Adar of 1946, the Rebbe arrived in New York, where many of his father’s chassidim awaited him. His life was shattered. He had lost his wife, Blima Ruchel and two children in the Holocaust. His father, his brother and three brothers-in-law were brutally murdered in Lemberg and another brother Chaim Shea, died in a Siberian prison. Hashem Yinakem Damam.
Here, he began to restore the crown of the Bobover chassidus to its glory. He founded Yeshivas Bnei Tzion of Bobov, named for his father, and Mesifta Eitz Chaim, named for the Divrei Chaim.
Shortly after his arrival, the Rav travelled to Milwaukee for a reunion with his sister, Rebbitzen Devora Leah Twerski, and her husband, the Milwaukee Rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel Twerski. The tears that flowed in that encounter would have sufficed to create a large river. He spent the entire Pesach in Milwaukee and conducted ‘tischen’ throughout.
His first order of business in America was to obtain visas for the many survivors in Eastern Europe who were destitute and longed to immigrate to the United States where a better material life was available. The American immigration authorities would not allow them, for fear they would become a welfare burden. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in those days was a Jew named Sol Bloom. Despite many entreaties, Bloom refused to bend the law to permit more Jews to immigrate.
The rebbe decided that he too would try his luck and scheduled an appointment with Bloom in his office. He arrived in Washington the night before and since he had nowhere to stay, he spent the night in a shul. Early the next morning he stood outside of Bloom’s office in his crumpled clothes. He was told that he would be given five minutes with the congressman. When the time arrived, he was ushered into Bloom’s office. Bloom took several minutes before he even looked up to see who was there. “Who are you?” he asked. The Kolbosaver Rav, Rav Alexander Teitelbaum, zt’l, acted as his translator.
Thoughts raced through the rebbe’s mind, and he blurted out, “I am a man who breaks the law!” Now that he had Bloom’s full attention, he continued, “Where I come from the law stated that every Jew must be sent to Auschwitz and be subjected to slave labor. Once a Jew was too weary and weak to work anymore, he was incinerated. According to the law, it was forbidden to hide or to escape. According to the law, it was forbidden to give food or any assistance to a Jew. But I broke all these laws.
“Now, I have come to ask you to join me in my criminal activities. The law states that it is forbidden to allow refugees to enter this country. But this law will bring about people’s deaths. It will deny them a chance for a future, a chance to raise their children. Such a law must be broken!”
Sol Bloom got up, walked around the desk, and grasped the rebbe’s hand “I’m with you!” he said. Using his congressional influence, Bloom issued entry visas and raised money to bring many Jewish refugees to the United States.
In 1948, Rav Shlomo married Rebbitzen Freida, a’h, daughter of Rav Aryeh Leib Rubin of Tomashov, zt’l, and he raised a new family. In 1959 he visited Eretz Yisrael to lay the cornerstone of Kiryat Bobov, a neighborhood of Bat Yam. He founded the Kedushas Tzion institutions, also in memory of his father. He saw to it that a Yeshivas Bnei Tzion was founded in London, and later others in Yerushalayim, Bnai Brak, Antwerp and Toronto.
