I grew up in Lakewood attending Congregation Sons of Israel where Rabbi Levovitz ZTL was Rav together with his wonderful Rebbetzin Bluma ZTL, and I was bar mitzvahed in his shul. His style was to stand the bachur habarmitzvah on the bimah with his arm around the shoulder of the young man and speak his Shabbat drasha to him. I can remember his words verbatim 50 years later.
 
He came to Lakewood in the early 40’s and built yiddishkeit. This included his personal mesiras nefesh in greeting and caring and rebuilding the lives of the many Holocaust survivors who located themselves in the Lakewood area. Together with Betzalel Goldstein ZTL and Irving Roy ZTL, he built the first full time Hebrew Day School in Lakewood.
 
As this is his Shloshim and we are around the corner from Pesach, I still remember his drashas in both English and Yiddish and the way he showed everyone the proper derech as a Rav. May his children, Sivia and Yaakov and their families be granted nechama over the passing of one of the Arzei Halevanon on Yiddishkeit in North America.
 
The “shtut” that Lakewood has become would not have been possible without the Jewish infrastrucuture of chinuch and kashrus that he built. BMG was a great but small institution while Rabbi Levovitz was busy “ma’avir Tzono”.
 
Yehi Zichro Boruch
Cantor Henry Topas
Montreal, Canada