Biography of Rabbi Masliansky (see note)
By Joseph Masliansky, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Stories as told to me by my father Aaron, who recalled every sermon.

Zvi Hirsh's father, Chaim and my grandfather Avraham Yitzchak's father, Yehuda Leib, were brothers.

For the most part, they lived in Slutzk, White Russia. The families were as one, and considered themselves more like brothers than cousins. Zvi Hirsh started to speak at a very late age and everyone thought that something was wrong with his vocal cords. Surprisingly, at the age of 7, to the bewilderment of his parents, on Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath before Tisha B'Av, he picked up the table cloth from the Sabbath table, put it on as a Talis and spoke of the destruction of the Temple before his friends. His father, sensing the deep and innermost feelings of his son, scolded him for having taken the table cloth as it was not dignified to leave the table uncovered on the Sabbath.

His memory was fantastic. He knew the entire Tanach by heart at an early age. He was an ardent Zionist and traveled around Russia and Poland preaching for the cause and giving hope to the destitute, homeless and the poor. On one Saturday, he spoke in a synagogue about AVNER. Avner was a general of King David. But the audience knew the Avner that Masliansky was talking about. Not General Aviner but Avner stood for the initials of the Czar's name. Alexander Ben Nicholai Romanov. The first letters spelled AVNER. A Jewish informer who was in the congregation notified the Russian police and they-gave him one month to leave-Russia.

In New York, when he arrived, the Yiddish newspapers announced that Masliansky Yidaber, Masliansky will speak on that Sabbath at the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol on Norfolk Street, the East Side. Thousands came to greet him and the New York police had to make a path for him to enter the synagogue. He remarked, look how wonderful the new world is. In Russia he had to run away from the police and in New York, the police made a path for him. This happened in 1896.

In 1910, at a case involving the stopping of new and especially Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia, brought on by the Commissioner of Immigration who was known as "Czar Wilson", Masliansky was called upon to testify for the unwanted refugees traveling in steerage. He made the following statement when confronted that what this country needed was muscles, brawn and strong backs to build the railroads and factories. His reply was "strong muscles and brawn can also make criminals and burglars who break locks. Strong minds and brains create a world of creativity and progress that builds a country." He created a stir and won the case. The refugees did not have to return to Europe. His strong words were and are responsible for all of us to be in the U.S. today. We too could have perished in the Holocaust had our grandparents and parents been denied entry to this country."

Note: Though Masliansky always called himself 'Reverend' many of his supporters believed he had been ordained in Russia. Dr. Gary P. Zola's study of Masliansky makes no mention of Masliansky's ordination.