Chava “Evelyn” Shusterman, a respected leader of the Chicago Jewish community who founded the city’s chapter of the Lubavitch Women’s Organization, passed away April 18 at the age of 89. For decades, the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary seamlessly combined her communal activities with her responsibilities raising a family, earning a reputation for showering her motherly love and wisdom on the countless individuals she encountered.
Born in 1920 in Malden, Mass., to Rabbi Shmaya and Etta Krinsky, she spent her formative years learning in public school during the day, while her parents supplemented her education with a full Jewish curriculum at home. Shusterman’s father worked as a ritual slaughterer at the Armour-Swift Company’s kosher poultry division.
The family of nine later moved to Boston, where they became involved in communal work, organizing Torah classes and Chasidic gatherings in synagogues throughout the city. The Krinsky home was always open to Jewish leaders who passed through Boston, especially Chabad-Lubavitch representatives fundraising for Jewish education. Through the years, Shusterman’s parents hosted such luminaries as Rabbi Yitzchak Horowitz – known in the Lubavitch community as “Itche the diligent” for the days and nights he devoted in Torah study – and Rabbi Mordechai Chefetz, who spent hours telling the family stories of pious individuals and sharing with them key Chasidic teachings.
As a teenager, Shusterman learned at the high school of the Hebrew Teacher’s College, where she graduated in 1941. Two years later, she married Rabbi Herschel “Harold” Shusterman, who at the time was assisting her sister and brother-in-law, Rabbi Moshe and Rivkah Hecht, with the Lubavitch School in nearby Worcester that they founded.
Following their wedding, the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory, suggested that the young couple should move to Rochester, N.Y., and establish a Jewish day school. Among the first Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in the United States, the Shustermans moved the Rochester, carrying out the formative tasks at the school themselves, as well as serving as teachers.
They struggled financially, but approached their endeavors with a sense of purpose. Within a short time of their arrival, they were even able to purchase a building for the school.
“We managed and never complained,” Chava Shusterman once said. “[We] didn’t buy things that we didn’t need.”
Move to Chicago
In 1947, the Sixth Rebbe instructed them to accept a request from Chicago for Shusterman’s husband to be installed as the rabbi of the Agudas Chabad synagogue. As before, they acceded to the Sixth Rebbe’s wishes. In Chicago, Shusterman ran the Talmud Torah, a program where Jewish public school students could study Jewish texts after school, and also revitalized the synagogue’s sisterhood, organizing luncheons and Jewish study programs.
Later, the couple moved to Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood, where they served as the spiritual leaders of the B’nei Reuven synagogue. There, they oversaw a period of building and growth; today, the synagogue comprises a large complex used for a host of Jewish activities throughout the week.
Among her activities, Shusterman visited the homes of new Jewish families in the area and encouraged them to come to synagogue and attend Jewish classes and events. The experience made her a unique judge of human emotion.
“[You needed to] recognize the person’s character,” she said, “if they had patience or if they got angry, and how to deal with them.”
Through the years, Shusterman gave many classes to community members, including one that taught people how to read Hebrew so that they could follow along with prayer services.
Looking back, she acknowledged that she rested little.
“You have to keep active and not show signs of laziness,” she recalled. “The main thing was to always greet people with a friendly smile.”
Her son Rabbi Shmarya Shusterman, a Chicago businessman, said she faced challenges head-on.
“She always kept a positive attitude,” he said. “She was very resilient throughout the growth pains of Jewish life and practice in Chicago.”
Shusterman and Chaya Soro Hecht, another community leader, established the city’s chapter of the Lubavitch Women’s Organization. Together, they organized scholarly lectures and inspirational talks for all of Chicago’s Jewish residents, and raised funds for Jewish education in Israel and France.
When the Sixth Rebbe’s son-in-law and successor, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, issued a worldwide call during the 1967 Six Day War for Jewish men to don the black prayer boxes known as tefillin, the women organized fundraisers to help people purchase the ritual items at a discounted price.
Shusterman also marshaled a committee to maintain a Jewish ritual bath known as the Daughters of Israel Mikvah, which was in poor condition when she moved to the neighborhood. In addition, she and her husband established a free-loan fund that since its inception has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in free loans to needy individuals.
Not Only for Knowledge
Along with her larger communal pursuits, Shusterman also taught in the Arie Crown Day School in Chicago, where she took special pride in using hands-on activities to impart Jewish lessons, such as taking her students to a kosher fish store to see firsthand how Jewish law is used to determine the kosher status of fish. A favorite project was her regular charity drive for the poor, in which the children took a lead role.
She had the honor of presenting the Lubavitch High School’s first graduating class with their diplomas.
“My main objective,” she told high school students in 2001, “was to not only teach them, but to train them in how a Jewish girl should conduct herself in life.
“The most important thing for teachers is patience,” she added, offering advice to the future educators in the room. “You are bound to have students who aggravate or upset you, but you still have to bear it with patience.”
Through it all, Shusterman maintained her central focus on her own children.
“Family comes first,” she often said, waking up early in the morning so that she had enough time for everyone’s needs.
Until her last days, she maintained contact with synagogue members and former students, logging dozens of phone calls a day to catch up, offer advice and share in their joy.
“She was an amazing example of [the biblical principal] to love your fellow,” said Tamar Hashimi. “She treated everyone like a queen regardless of where they came from, or where they were holding.”
Chava Shusterman was buried in New York. She is survived by her children Rabbi Shmarya Shusterman of Chicago; Rabbi Yisroel Shusterman, executive director of the Cheder Chabad of Monsey School in New York; Rabbi Yosef Y. Shusterman, director of Chabad of Beverly Hills, Calif.; Rabbi Mendel Shusterman of Melbourne, Australia’s Yeshiva Centre; and Sori Galperin of Detroit; and many grandchildren across the globe.
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