Mrs. Malka Rosenbaum A”H was born in 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland. After marrying Rabbi Kalman Rosenbaum in 1966, they resided in Baltimore as part of the Ner Yisroel Kollel for three years. In 1969, Rabbi Rosenbaum was called to assume the leadership of the Jewish day school in Hartford, Connecticut. For the next 41 years, Rabbi and Mrs. Rosenbaum dedicated their lives to education and outreach in the cities of Hartford, Connecticut; Richmond, Virginia; Highland Park, New Jersey; and Atlanta, Georgia. Throughout these years, Mrs. Rosenbaum enabled her husband to fully commit himself to the community at a public level. Away from the public eye, she also played a crucial role in cultivating the growth of the community, both on a personal and general level. Her Shabbos table was legendary, and her benevolence was memorable, with extra beds and fresh linen always ready in her home for guests.
Mrs. Rosenbaum was very active in many community areas, including teaching, the Chevra Kadisha, and the Mikvah. She personally mentored individual community members on various topics, helping them strengthen their Torah observance.
In 2003, Ramat Eshkol began to show the first signs of becoming a religious neighborhood. At the behest of Rav Elyashiv and other Torah sages, Mrs. Rosenbaum helped establish the first organized Torah learning in the then non-religious neighborhood.
In 2008, during her annual visit to Eretz Yisroel, she visited the Orenstein Mikvah, a century-old Mikvah located off the Kikar Shabbos intersection in Jerusalem. Distraught at its dilapidated state, she produced a video giving a guided tour of the rundown Mikvah and single-handedly undertook the task of raising the necessary funds for its renovation.
In the summer of 2009, Mrs. Rosenbaum was diagnosed with incurable cancer. In a show of tremendous affection, the entire Atlanta community rallied behind her through prayer and acts of kindness. It was during this time that she doubled her efforts to raise the remaining funds for the Orenstein Mikvah.
On May 26th, 2010, Mrs. Rosenbaum left the hospital in Atlanta to fulfill her lifelong dream of moving to Eretz Yisroel. She was escorted by the entire hospital staff in a rare display of love and admiration for this very special woman. She arrived in Eretz Yisroel just two weeks prior to her passing.
After her passing, Rabbi Rosenbaum sought to memorialize her life of Torah and kindness. Faced with the decision of dedicating a Sefer Torah in her memory or focusing on supporting Torah scholars in her merit, Rav Elyashiv directed him to the latter. Rabbi Rosenbaum opened a Kollel in her memory that same year in the very same neighborhood of Ramat Eshkol that she had helped spread Torah observance years before.