After the German invasion of Poland in World War II and the division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union, many yeshivas (Jewish schools of Torah study, generally for boys and men) that had previously been part of Poland found themselves under Soviet communist rule, which did not tolerate religious institutions. The yeshivas therefore escaped to Vilnius in Lithuania on the advice of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. In Lithuania, the yeshivas were able to function fully for over a year and many of the students survived the Holocaust because of their taking refuge there, either because they managed to escape from there or because they were ultimately deported to other areas of Russia that the Nazis did not reach. Many students, however, did not manage to escape and were killed by the Nazis or their Lithuanian collaborators.
Before the Second World War, there were many yeshivas in Eastern Europe, mostly in what is present-day Belarus and Lithuania as well as Poland, and what was then mostly the Second Polish Republic. These include the yeshivas of Mir, Slabodka, Telshe, Radin, Lomza, Kaminetz, Kletsk, Grodno, Baranovich, and Bialystok. Thousands of students flocked to Eastern Europe from all over the world, mostly from local locations, but also from Sweden, the United States, Germany, England, Belgium, and more, to study in the famous yeshivas under venerable rosh yeshivas. [1] [2] [3] [4]
At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the Nazis overran Poland before partitioning it with the Soviet Union. Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, a leader of European Torah Jewry, then sent out an urgent message to all the yeshivas that had just fallen under Soviet rule, instructing them to escape to Vilnius (Yiddish : Vilna), previously part of Poland which at that point had also fallen under Soviet rule. However, Grodzinski knew that the Russians and Lithuanians had made an agreement that they would return Vilnius to Lithuania, which had been their capital city for centuries. Many of the yeshivas, including Mir, Kletsk, Kaminetz, Baranovich, Grodno, and Radin, therefore escaped to Vilnius. Altogether, there were about 25,000 Jewish refugees in Vilnius at the time. [5] [6] In an interview published by Rabbi Dov Eliach, a student recalled that the Polish refugees were warmly welcomed by the Jews of Vilnius, with many of them hosting refugees in their homes, sometimes even aiding their guests financially. [7]
Although the Prime Minister of Lithuania treated the Jews well, his government decided after a few weeks that having the capital city packed with refugees was an unsustainable situation, and so the yeshivas were ordered to scatter throughout the nearby towns. The Kaminetz yeshiva relocated to Rasein; [8] the Mir yeshiva to Keidan; the Radin yeshiva to Eishishok; the Kletsk yeshiva to Yanov; the Baranovich yeshiva to Troki, and later Smilishoki; [9] the Bialystok yeshiva of Novardok to Birzh; and the Pinsk yeshiva of Novardok to Wilkomir. [10] The exiled yeshivas were supported by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the rabbinate in America. [11]
The refugees in Lithuania knew that staying where they were in Europe was not a permanent solution, as they were situated between two warring nations, with Nazi Germany to the west and the Soviet Union to the east. The Vaad Hayeshivos ("The Council of Yeshivas", an organization in Eastern Europe led by Grodzinski that helped support the region's yeshivas) worked to supply all the yeshiva students with visas and passports that they would need to escape Europe for Japan and Curacao. Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara issued visas to refugees, against his country's orders. [12] The visas for Curaçao were issued by the Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk. It was actually not a real visa, but a note in the passport that no visa was required for Curaçao. [13] For many of the students, the visas were insufficient: they needed to cross Russia to Japan on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and tickets cost $170, money which many of them did not have (according to Rabbi Dov Eliach's interview with an alumnus of the Kaminetz Yeshiva). [14]
The nasi (president) of the Mir yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz, went to the United States, understanding that he would be able to help the Jews in Europe much more from there. He was one of the heads of the Vaad Hatzolah in America, [15] and collected money to help his yeshiva. Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, who was in Sweden at the time, and Mike Tress from the United States, also helped collect the funds. In the end, virtually the entire Mir yeshiva was able to escape Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, and from there to Kobe, Japan. The yeshiva, together with many other Jewish refugees who managed to escape to the east, was later transferred to Shanghai, where the Japanese interned them in a ghetto. Kalmanowitz continued sending money to them. Fragments of the Polish Hasidic Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva also managed to escape to Japan and then China, and studied in the same beth midrash (study hall) as the Mir students. [16]
The many students who remained in Lithuania continued their escape efforts, attempting to travel to America. Although Vilnius had originally been given by the Soviets to Lithuania, the Soviets soon took over the entire region in 1940. When the Russian government found out that the yeshiva students were attempting to leave for America, they began to view the students as anti-Communist and against the Soviet Union. They therefore did not want them so close to the war front, lest the Germans invaded Russia and the yeshiva students joined sides with them (as the Nazis were intent on wiping out European Jewry, the yeshivas would not have joined them anyway). They therefore made plans to deport the students to Siberia. However, Russian soldiers had been commandeering Jewish homes in Lithuania, and when the hosts got wind of the situation, they warned the yeshiva students of the government's plans. Many of the students went into hiding to avoid the deportation, while other felt it would be safer for them in Siberia than to be so close to the Nazi front. In the end, many of the yeshiva students, including those from the Kaminetz, Radin, and Bialystok yeshivas, were sent to Russia, although not all to Siberia. While some, including students from Novardok and their teacher, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Nekritz, [17] and future-rabbi Yaakov Galinsky, [10] were indeed sent to Siberia, others (as published in the book Tales of Devotion in the name of a student) were taken to the remote Komi Republic at the foot of the Ural Mountains where they were subjected to forced labor. [14]
According to the book Tales of Devotion, mere days after the yeshiva students' deportation to the Komi Republic, the Nazis invaded Lithuania. The students who had stayed behind hoping for safety were ultimately killed by the Nazis. [7]
The Telshe yeshiva was located in the city of Telšiai (Yiddish : Telshe) in Lithuania, and was therefore relatively already safe when World War II broke out. However, plans were made to move the yeshiva to the United States, and Rabbi Elya Meir Bloch and Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz traveled to America to arrange the transfer. [18] The yeshiva, led by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Bloch, continued in Telshe. While the rosh yeshiva's daughter and son-in-law, Rabbi Baruch Sorotzkin and Rebbetzin Rochel Sorotzkin, fled to Japan, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Bloch remained in Lithuania with his students. [19] All of the remaining yeshiva students as well and the rosh yeshiva were killed by the Nazis soon after. [20]
The members of the Kelm Talmud Torah, also already located in Lithuania since before the outbreak of World War II, were also massacred in the Holocaust, along with the rest of the city's Jewish population. Rounded up on July 29, 1941, the Jews were marched to the forest on the outskirts of the city to be murdered. The yeshiva's mashgiach ruchani , Rabbi Doniel Movshovitz, was forced to lead the Jews, with his brother-in-law Rabbi Gershon Miadnik, holding a sefer Torah , and the city's rabbi, Rabbi Kalman Reinishovitz, alongside him. They were then forced to dig graves. Before being killed, Movshovitz received permission to speak to everyone, and afterwards, they were all shot. [21]
In the town of Slabodka, on June 25, 1941, the Kaunas pogrom broke out, during which thousands of Jews were murdered. It was around this time that the entire Slabodka yeshiva was wiped out, with 108 students and teachers killed in a single week. [22] Many were killed in the Seventh and Ninth Forts, where Lithuanian Nazi collaborators murdered thousands of Jews. Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman of Baranovich and Rabbi Avrohom Grodzinski of Slabodka were murdered around that time too, in the Seventh Fort. [9] The members of the Ponovezh Yeshiva were all killed by the Nazis as well. [23] The rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, was in Palestine at the time. [24]
While the yeshivas affected the most were located in Europe, the yeshivas in Mandatory Palestine and the United States were affected as well. In 1942, Nazi general Erwin Rommel and his army conquered North Africa and planned to advance further into Palestine. All the Jews in the region, which included the students of the Chevron Yeshiva, Yeshivas Eitz Chaim, and Yeshiva Porat Yosef, were terrified of succumbing to the Holocaust. In the end, the British defeated Rommel in the Battle of El Alamein in Egypt. [25]
The United States was also affected by the war. In 1940, Zeirei Agudath Israel founded a night yeshiva for young Jewish refugees from Europe. Headed at first by Rabbi Gedalia Schorr and later by Rabbi Shlomo Rottenberg, its teachers included Rabbi Berel Belsky (father of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky), Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, Rabbi Shachne Zohn, and Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Shurkin. [26]
Despite the destruction of the yeshivas in Europe, many of these institutions were re-established in the United States and/or Israel during or after World War II. The Mir yeshiva, likely the only Eastern European yeshiva to continue operating during the Holocaust, divided after World War II between a location in New York, [15] opened and led by Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz, and a location in Jerusalem, opened and led by Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, who had previously served as Mir rosh yeshiva in Europe. [27]
The Telshe yeshiva was reopened in Cleveland, Ohio, by Rabbis Eliyahu Meir Bloch and Chaim Mordechai Katz. [28] The Ramailes Yeshiva was reestablished by Rabbi Yisrael Zev Gustman in New York and later in Israel. [29] The Grodno yeshiva was reestablished in Queens, where it was led by Rabbi Zelig Epstein. [30]
In Israel, the Kaminetz yeshiva was reestablished by Rabbi Moshe Bernstein and Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Leibowitz in Jerusalem, while the Ponovezh yeshiva was reestablished in Bnei Brak by Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman. [31] The branch of the Lomza Yeshiva that had been opened in Petach Tikvah in 1926 continued functioning after the war. [31]
Hebron Yeshiva, also known as Yeshivas Hevron, or Knesses Yisroel, is a yeshiva. It originated in 1924 when the roshei yeshiva (deans) and 150 students of the Slabodka Yeshiva, known colloquially as the "mother of yeshivas", relocated to Hebron.
Shimon Yehuda Shkop was Rosh Yeshiva (dean) of the Yeshiva of Telshe, and later of Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah of Grodno. Having innovated a style of Torah study, applying both to Halacha and to Talmud, he was widely regarded as a major Talmid Chacham.
Boruch Ber Leibowitz (Yiddish: ברוך בער לייבאוויץ Hebrew: רב ברוך דוב ליבוביץ, romanized: Boruch Dov Libovitz; 1862 – November 17, 1939, known as Reb Boruch Ber, was a rabbi famed for his Talmudic lectures, particularly in that they were rooted styled in the method of his teacher Chaim Soloveitchik. He is known for leading Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak in Slabodka and Kaminetz.
Yeshivah Gedolah of Johannesburg was one of the first Yeshivot established in South Africa. Since its founding in 1978, it has played an important - though understated - role in the South African religious community. It is based in Glenhazel, Johannesburg. It was established and headed by Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Azriel Goldfein until his death in 2007, and is now headed by his sons Rabbi Avraham and Rabbi David Goldfein. The Yeshiva accommodates students from across the spectrum of Orthodoxy. The Hirsch Lyons Primary and High Schools are associated with the Yeshivah.
Avraham Kalmanowitz was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Mir yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York from 1946 to 1964. Born in Russian empire, he served as rabbi of several Eastern European Jewish communities and escaped to the United States in 1940 following the German occupation of Poland. In the U.S. he was an activist for the rescue of the millions of Jews trapped in Nazi-ruled Europe and in the Soviet Union. He arranged the successful transfer of the entire Mir yeshiva from Lithuania to Shanghai, providing for its support for five years, and obtaining visas and travel fare to bring all 250 students and faculty to America after World War II. He established the U.S. branch of the Mir in 1946. In the 1950s he aided North African and Syrian Jewish youth suffering from persecution and pogroms, and successfully lobbied for the passage of a bill granting "endangered refugee status" to Jewish emigrants from Arab lands.
Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael was a yeshiva located in the town of Vilijampolės Slabada in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire. It operated from the late 19th century until World War II.
Shmuel Halevi Schecter was a Canadian–American Orthodox Jewish rabbi, educator, and author. Born in Quebec and raised in Baltimore, he traveled to Eastern Europe to study at the Mir Yeshiva as a teenager and at the Kelm Talmud Torah as a young married man. In 1940 he returned to the United States, where he was a co-founder of the first kollel in America, Beth Medrash Govoha, in White Plains, New York. He was a Torah educator in New York and Boston for more than 50 years, and served as dean of Mesivta Toras Emes in Brooklyn. He published a commentary on Orchot Chaim LeHoRosh, a musar work.
Chaim Yaakov Stein is best known for leading the Telshe Yeshiva at two times in its history: Cleveland and Wickliffe.
The Ramailes Yeshiva was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Šnipiškės, Vilnius, Lithuania. It was established in the early nineteenth century, most likely in 1815.
Mesivta Rabsa Eitz Chaim DiSlutsk, colloquially known as the Slutsk-Kletsk Yeshivah was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Europe, founded in Slutsk, then part of the Russian Empire, and later moved to Kletsk in the Second Polish Republic, in 1897. The yeshiva was founded by the Ridvaz and famously led by Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer and Rabbi Aharon Kotler.
The Lomza Yeshiva was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Łomża, Poland, founded by Rabbi Eliezer Bentzion Shulevitz in 1883. Rabbi Yechiel Mordechai Gordon served as the yeshiva's rosh yeshiva for many years, and Rabbi Moshe Rosenstain served as the mashgiach. A branch of the yeshiva was established in Petach Tikvah, Palestine in 1926, where Rabbi Reuven Katz served as co-rosh yeshiva alongside Rabbi Gordon.
Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva, founded in Slabodka on the outskirts of Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1897. The yeshiva later moved to Kamyenyets, then part of Poland, and currently in Belarus, and is therefore often referred to as the Kaminetz Yeshiva or simply Kaminetz. The yeshiva was famously led by Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz.
Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah – Grodna, often referred to as the Grodna Yeshiva or simply as Grodna, was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in the Belarusian city of Grodno, then under Russian rule. Founded during World War I, Shimon Shkop became rosh yeshiva (dean) in 1920.
Dov Tzvi Heller commonly called by his Yiddish name, Ber Hirsch Heller, was a rabbi and mashgiach ruchani at the Slabodka Yeshiva in Europe, as well as the father-in-law of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky and Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski.
The Vaad HaYeshivos was an organization in Eastern Europe that helped financially support the Lithuanian-style yeshivos in Eastern Europe. Founded by Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan in 1924, it was led by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.
Shlomo Harkavy, also known as Rav Shlomo Grodner, was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Grodno, Poland. He served as mashgiach ruchani of the Grodno Yeshiva under Shimon Shkop, until he was murdered the Holocaust.
Rabbi Yosef Yehudah Leib Bloch was a prominent rabbi and rosh yeshiva in Telshe (Telšiai), Lithuania.
Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Sher was the rosh yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva in Lithuania and Bnei Brak. He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka.
Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, often referred to as Rav Elya Meir Bloch, was a leading Orthodox Jewish rabbi in the United States in the years after World War II. He founded the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio together with Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz, and served as its first rosh yeshiva.
My mother's father, Rabbi Chaim Feldberg, was also a talmid of Torah Vodaath [in the United States], and was a classmate of Harav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, zt'l. Rav Scheinberg went on to learn in Mir in Europe, while my grandfather went to Radin to learn from the Chofetz Chaim zt'l.
many of the students and townsfolk escaped to Vilna...
Supported by the hospitality of the poor Jews of Lithuania and the generosity of the American rabbinate and the Joint Distribution Committee....
Chiune Sugihara, who died in 1986, ignored orders from Tokyo while posted to Kaunas (then Kovno) in 1940 and helped Jews flee the Nazis...
With the German invasion of Soviet Union during World War II, the yeshiva closed and many of its students and teachers were killed.
[R]abbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman...who replanted his illustrious yeshiva of Ponovezh, Lithuania to the city of Bnei Brak after the original yeshiva and community were destroyed in the Holocaust.
In 1940, while he was in Eretz Yisroel on a fundraising trip, he learned that his entire yeshiva had been destroyed, and his wife and children slain.
In 5704/1944, Rav Leizer Yudel was finally ready to establish the yeshiva... Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer who had asked Rav Leizer Yudel to send his talmidim to shore up various yeshivos in Europe was now the Rosh Yeshiva of Eitz Chaim, and he returned the favor by sending a group of his top talmidim to help Rav Leizer Yudel rebuild the Mirrer Yeshiva.
When the Telshe Yeshiva was established by Harav Eliya Meir Bloch and Harav Mottel Katz, zichronam levrachah, in Cleveland in 1940....
The name of the yeshiva perpetuated at Shaar HaTorah in Queens, under the leadership of Reb Shimon's grandson-in-law, Rabbi Zelik Epstein.