Obituary: Rabbi Shmuel Rodal, 77, Brought Judaism to Life for Generations of Students in Milan
by Menachem Posner – chabad.org
He was a fixture in the classroom for nearly 50 years, teaching successive generations of Italian Jewish children with humor, enthusiasm and love. Canadian-born Rabbi Shmuel Rodal, who passed away on Oct. 16 (Hoshanah Rabbah), was 77 years old and had lived in Milan since 1970.
He was born just before Rosh Hashanah, 1945, to Rabbi Yosef and Faige Rodal, in Montreal. His father was among the nine Polish Chabad yeshivah students who had come to the city after escaping the Holocaust with Japanese visas provided by Chiune Sugihara (most of the students waited out the war years in Shanghai, China, awaiting visas). His mother had arrived in Canada as a teen and was among the few young women in the city fully devoted to steadfast Torah observance.
Money was tight in the Rodal home, and Shmuel was heavily involved in the family business, Rodal’s Judaica, and caring for his younger siblings.
At the suggestion of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—he transferred to yeshivah in New York at the age of 14.
The Rebbe took a deep interest in his spiritual development and also in his material well-being, arranging dental work when needed and personally assuring Faiga Rodal that her son was learning well, eating well and happy in his new surroundings.
When Shmuel was 18 years old, the Rebbe suggested that he transfer to the Chabad yeshivah in Kfar Chabad, Israel.
While there, he wrote two letters to the Rebbe expressing niggling doubts in the veracity of Jewish tradition. In time, his internal struggles subsided and he threw himself into spiritual development. Afterward, he was shown a stack of monthly letters from the Rebbe, expressing concern and asking the yeshivah staff for regular updates regarding his spiritual state.
In 1967, he transferred to Torat Emet, the Chabad yeshivah in Jerusalem. As the drums of war began to beat, fear was mounting in Israel and around the world. His mother sent him a plane ticket to Canada, and the embassies were ordering foreign nationals out of Israel. The Rebbe sent Shmuel and four other students an urgent telegram, urging them to continue their studies confident in G‑d’s protection of the denizens of the Holy Land.
Several years later, when his father, who had suffered a heart attack, wanted to bring his son into the business, the Rebbe replied: “So much effort was put in so Shmuel should turn out OK … and you want to waste him on the store?”
Indeed, the Rebbe would see to it that his boundless energy and enthusiasm would be spent in the realm of Jewish education and sharing the joy of Judaism with others.
After his return to the United States, he was introduced to and married Devorah Munitz in 1968. The Rebbe was heavily involved in the match, advising, encouraging and ultimately providing his blessing to the young couple.
“The Rebbe was literally like a father to me,” he recalled in an interview with JEM’s “My Encounter with the Rebbe” project in 2018. “There was a closeness. The Rebbe loved me. I always felt this.”
The couple settled in Crown Heights, and with the Rebbe’s blessing, young Rabbi Rodal began teaching in Yeshiva of Central Queens. Although he did not have a secular degree, the school took him based on the recommendation of Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin, rabbi of the Chabad community.
He was given a class of particularly unruly fourth-graders, and by the end of the year, he had completely turned them around. As a result, an afterschool enrichment program was added, and many students from those years still remember the young teacher who brought learning to life for them.
Wishing to move out to serve as Chabad emissaries, the Rodals submitted to the Rebbe a list of nine teaching positions, all of which were in the Eastern United States, besides for Milan, Italy, which they had added as a favor to Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik, who had been serving as the Rebbe’s emissary in Milan since 1958.
Dispatched to Milan
To their surprise, the Rebbe chose Milan, advising them on how to structure a two-year contract and other arrangements.
The rabbi moved to Italy in the summer of 1970 so that he could pick up Italian and find a place for his family to live before the start of the school year at Milan’s Scuola del Merkos.
“When he taught, you literally felt Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Pharaoh were about to walk into the classroom,” says Rabbi Benny Zippel, whom the rabbi taught in first grade in 1971-72. “You were living the experience with him. He taught with such enthusiasm, excitement and passion. He brought it to life.”
And so, two years turned into 50 years, and the rabbi continued teaching into his 70s.
His children recall that he “lived with Moshiach,” concluding nearly every conversation with his fervent wish and confident expectation that Moshiach would arrive soon.
In addition to school, the rabbi served as longtime spiritual leader and Torah reader at the Beth Shlomo synagogue in central Milan, more than an hour’s walk from his home.
He also became involved in another endeavor: picking etrogim (citrons) from the vaunted orchards of Calabria, where Jews had been sourcing their etrogim for generations. For decades, he spent his summers out in the orchards together with his colleague, Rabbi Moshe Lazar, carefully checking each fruit to ensure that it grew from an ungrafted etrog tree. Their work was guided—and appreciated—by the Rebbe who instructed that two witnesses be present during the cutting and would use an etrog they sent each year for the mitzvah.
Another project of his was publishing and distributing an Italian-language weekly newsletter, Il Pensiero della Settimana, containing Torah teachings, inspirational stories and more. Starting with four pages and 127 recipients, it grew to be 16 pages distributed among 11,600 subscribers throughout the Italian Peninsula.
A Smile for Everyone
The Rodals were blessed with 17 children, and the rabbi was an active and involved father. Between school, teaching, synagogue and his publication, he worked round the clock, rarely sleeping more than four hours a night for much of his adult life.
Yet he seemed to have time and a ready smile for everyone.
Their modest home was open for all, and guests would sometimes move in for a few days, a few weeks or even months.
At a booth he set up at an Israeli cultural celebration in 2010, he met young David Martinetti, a non-Jewish teen who was fascinated by Judaism.
“I stood alone, observing him,” recalled Martinetti. “The rabbi walked toward me with a smile, extended his hand warmly and offered me my first Jewish greeting: ‘Shalom.’ ”
In time, Martinetti was studying with the rabbi twice a week, exploring all areas of Jewish belief and observance. When the young man wished to move to Israel and undergo conversion, his mentor encouraged him to respect his parents’ wishes and finish high school with straight A’s first.
When Martinetti could not find a yeshivah willing to accept him, Rodal studied with him every day for four hours one-on-one. Following his eventual conversion, Martinetti went to Israel to study full-time with Rodal paying his tuition.
“No words can express the gratitude that I feel,” he said. “His time, generosity, thoughtfulness and financial support can never be repaid. I simply want to emulate his kindness by the way that I live my life. This is the only way I can honor the rabbi that changed my life.”
In addition to his wife, Rabbi Shmuel Hakohen Rodal is survived by his children: Bracha Leah Sassonkin (Metula, Israel); Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Rodal (New York); Chana Lavine (Johannesburg); Dini Polichenco (Carmel Valley, Calif.); Rabbi Schneur Zalman Rodal (London); Zeldi Richter (Howard Beach, N.Y.); Rabbi Berele Rodal (Johannesburg); Rabbi Leibele Rodal Montreal); Sorele Brownstein (Davis, Calif.); Rabbi Yisrael Meir Rodal (Milan); Rabbi Eliezer Rodal (Phoenix, Ariz.); Sonia Hershcovich (Cabo, Mexico); Mushki Silverstein (Pomona, N.Y.); Yehudis Hyman (Kingston, Pa.); Rabbi Yossi Rodal (Carlsbad, Calif.); and Frumi Sassonkin (New York). His siblings are Naftali Dovber (Berel) Rodal (Ottawa) and Chana Raizel Kagan.
He was predeceased by his daughter, Reizel, and brother, Rabbi Menachem Aharon Rodal.
