Rav Galinsky was involved in almost every aspect of Sha'alvim's tremendous success for the last four decades. He was responsible for the day-to-day operations and the long-term vision of the yeshiva when Rav Yaakovson, Rav Goldsmith, Rav Felberman, Rav Turetsky, and all the other SFW Rebbaim learned there.
We at Sha'alvim for Women have another reason for hakarat hatov to Rav Galinsky: he was instrumental and tireless in his work in the founding of SFW. שלי ושלכם שלו הוא.
בלע המות לנצח ומחה ה אלוקים דמעה מעל כל פנים
The following is the obituary of Rav Galinsky z"l written in Matzav.com
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Rav Mallen Galinsky zt”l, the charismatic and magnetic longtime dean at Yeshivas Sha’alvim. He was 77 years old.
A musmach of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yaakov Yosef (RJJ) on New York’s East Side, which he graduated in 1954, Rav Galinsky later attended Brooklyn College, received his Masters Degree in Jewish Education at Yeshiva University and did doctoral work at YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School.
Rav Galinsky was a son of Rav Yehuda Dov Galinsky zt”l, who arrived in the United States as a six-year-old from the city of Astryn, near Grodna. Rav Yehuda Dov attended Yeshiva Rabbeinu Yaakov Yosef, subsequently learning with Rav Simcha Soloveitchik (brother of Rav Chaim Soloveithik of Brisk), was rov at Cong. Anshei Toras Chessed Vezichru Toras Moshe in Manhattan, and delivered lectures at the Young Israel of Manhattan. In 1931, Rav Yehuda Dov married his wife, Leah, a daughter of Rav Ephraim Zalman Halpern, formerly chief rabbi of Denver, Colorado, and became therov of Colchester, Connecticut, where he served until 1944. In 1945, Rav Yehuda Dov was appointed as the rov of Coney Island’s Congregation Sharei Zedek-Sea Gate Sisterhood and Talmud Torah, and immediately established its Yeshiva Sharei Zedek. He was a well-known orator and radio personality on WEVD, and was instrumental in changing the religious landscape of Coney Island by raising a generation of G-d-fearing Jews. Rav Yehuda Dov passed away on 10 Shevat, 5716 (January 1956).
With the sudden petirah of his father, Rav Galinsky was called to his position as rov of Coney Island’s Congregation Sharei Zedek- Sea Gate Sisterhood and Talmud Torah and as dean of its affiliated Yeshiva Sharei Zedek.
In 1969, Rav Galinsky was asked to serve as National Associate Director of the World Zionist Organization’s Department for Torah Education and Culture American Section. He accepted the offer with the objective of increasing Israel awareness amongst American yeshiva students and heightening and extending the formal limud haTorah of American high school graduates by creating a Torah study program in Eretz Yisroel for young men and women. He stood at the cradle of what is today an exceptional and impressive phenomenon which has a lasting impact on the students and has had a profound influence upon numerous American Orthodox Jews.
Rav Galinsky, together with his brother, for many years filled the role formerly occupied by his father on WEVD radio. With his beautiful, flowery Yiddish and enchanting personality, he shared divrei Torah and hashkafah messages that profoundly impacted an untold number of Jews from across the religious - and even non-religious - spectrum. People often remarked how similar he sounded to his illustrious father.
In 1976, Rav Galinsky moved to Eretz Yisroel, answering the call to join Yeshivas Sha’alvim as dean of the yeshiva’s Institute for Overseas Students. He directed a program which became synonymous with excellence in Torah education. The rabbonim, talmidim, alumni and friends of the yeshiva often expressed their tremendous debt of hakoras hatov to Rav Galinsky for his decades of mesirus nefesh on behalf of the yeshiva and its harbotzas haTorah. Yeshivas Sha’alvim has a program for students from the United States and other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Belgium, Hungary, South Africa and Australia.
Rav Galinsky’s levaya was held on Erev Shabbos.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Sonia Galinsky; his brother, Rabbi Moshe Galinsky; his sister, Mrs. Tova Klahr; and his children, R’ Yehuda Galinsky, R’ Efraim Galinsky, R’ Shimon Galinsky, R’ Eliezer Galinsky, Mrs. Sheindy Gold, Mrs. Devora Rosenbaum, and Mrs. Chana Gelfand.
