The petirah of Rabbi Reuven Bauman, z”l, 35, was a tragedy that captured the attention and hearts of Klal Yisrael. Thousands followed the events in the news, many davened on his behalf, and dozens of people from organizations and communities around the country put aside their daily lives to take part in the search effort to locate his body.
The six days between his disappearance into waves of a Virginia beach and when he was finally brought to kever Yisrael brought Jews of disparate stripes together, bound by a heartbreaking cause.
Yet, behind the emotional news story of an elementary-school rebbi whose last earthly act was to save a child in his charge is the story of a phenomenal man, who in his short life touched many other lives. With gentle middos, an infectious ahavas Hatorah, and a genuine sense of respect and caring for his fellow Jew, he connected to young and old, sharing his knowledge and love of Torah in and out of the classroom.
Not content to hone his abilities in one of Klal Yisrael’s large and comfortable bastions of Torah life, Rabbi Bauman and his young family planted themselves in the small but rich communities of Savannah, Georgia, and then Norfolk, Virginia, in an effort to be marbitz Torah to the Jews of those southern cities.
In the three years since joining the Toras Chaim school in Norfolk, Rabbi Bauman had taught and inspired many students in his seventh- and eighth-grade classes. “Rabbi Bauman had an ability to connect with a talmid, and with a look had a way of telling each one that he cared,” Rabbi Mordechai Loiterman, Toras Chaim’s principal, told Hamodia. “He had a kindness and gentleness, and a calm sense of order, a positive attitude towards everything. He took being a rebbi very seriously and was very professional and prepared a great deal. “Rabbi Bauman was a real talmid chacham and a tremendous baal middos who had an air of leadership that made you feel that you were speaking with someone far older than 35. He will be sorely missed by all of us.”
Reuven Tzvi Bauman grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. Chinuch was something that came partially by way of inheritance, as his father, Rabbi Menachem (Mark) Bauman has served for many years as a rebbi in the Rosenbaum Yeshivah of North Jersey. He also previously served as the General Studies Principal of Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (YRSRH) in Washington Heights. Both he and Reuven’s mother, Mrs. Esther Bauman, grew up in the “Breuer’s” kehillah, and the family has remained connected to it, albeit from across the Hudson River. In their younger years, Reuven and his siblings all attended YRSRH’s schools.
As a young man, Reuven spent several years at Yeshivas Bais Moshe in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he sharpened his skills and yedios Hatorah before spending a period of time studying in Eretz Yisrael.
He married Tzivia, the daughter of Rabbi Yoel and Esther Stern. Shortly after their wedding, the couple moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where Rabbi Bauman joined the city’s community kollel. In 2010, they moved again, this time to Savannah, where Rabbi Bauman became a member of that city’s kollel. While in Savannah, Rabbi Bauman learned together with, and developed close bonds with, many of the small community’s members. One shiur he delivered presented a methodical study of the central commentators on Chumash on the weekly parshah. The care he put into preparation the shiur is still evident in the careful marks left in his Mikros Gedolos Chumash.
In 2016, the Baumans moved to Norfolk, where Rabbi Bauman took the reins of Toras Chaim’s oldest class. With his sincere caring and skillful teaching methods, he quickly became a most beloved mechanech at the small school. With a thorough understanding of sugyos hashas and a knack for clarity, he was successful in preparing several of his students for top yeshivos, seemingly worlds away from Norfolk......
Rabbi Bauman’s ability to bring the lessons of gedolei Yisrael down to a younger generation is not only left behind in his students, but in Yanky’s Amazing Discovery. The children’s book he authored tells the tale of a boy who is inspired to overcome his struggles in yeshivah by stories about Harav Yaakov Kamenetsky, zt”l. read more at Hamodia
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