Crossing the border wasnt just an escape from the anti-religious communists to the safety of Poland. Rav Aharon Kotler was one of the very few Torah giants who contributed mightily to the transformation of the face of American Jewry in the middle of the twentieth century from one of Torah ignorance and mourning over the Holocaust to significant progress in Torah knowledge and partial recovery from the tragedy of the Holocaust. Another day school, a yeshivah gedolah, kollelim that dotted the fruited plains. A savior arrived in the form of Rav Reuven Grozovsky, an older student of the Alter of Slabodka. Rav Aharon at a town meeting in Kletzk (second row, third from left). Local families belonging to the shul wouldtake responsibility for feeding the students and provided them with a modest monthly stipend. He had a mind like the Rogatchover, Rav Shneur recalled his father saying. Following the call of their leaders: When Vaad activist Herman Hollander (not pictured) and his wife Grace learned that there was a possibility that Jewish lives could be ransomed from the Nazis, with a sense of alacrity, they sold their hard-earned, newly acquired Brooklyn home, with the proceeds benefiting the life-saving work of the Vaad Hatzalah. Im convinced that Chinuch Atzmai is more important than my own yeshivah.. You know what? Among the younger group, there were three younger bochurim [known to be exceptional], they were almost yingerlach (children): The Vishker Illui, Hershke Semiatytcher, and last but not least Arke Sislovitcher. ISBN9781510770232. Dividing into three factions, the largest went to Salock in northern Lithuania, together with Rav Aharon himself. Rabbi Aaron Twerski relates a story told to him by a fellow talmid, Rav Yekusiel Bittersfeld, who served as Rav Aharons attendent one year at the Agudah convention: We were sitting at the seudah with Rav Mendel Zaks, when Rav Aharon turned to me and said, Yekusiel, sing a zemer. Rav Mendel replied, Zemiros werent sung at the table of my father-in-law (the Chofetz Chaim). Without missing a beat, Rav Aharon said, Mistameh hut er nit gekent. In Poland, when there were many yeshivos, people would say, if you would like an approach full of life (lebedeigkeit) then go to Kletzk. He had recently met withAgudath Harabonim emissary Dr. Samuel Schmidt in Yanova, Lithuania, wherehis yeshivah had relocated. Once again, the timeless words of Shlomo Hamelech, The sun rises and the sun sets, played out. [5] while the surrounding Lakewood community supports a network of more than 100 other yeshivas[6] and approximately 200 synagogues[7] for an Orthodox population estimated at more than 66,000. But what can I do? A sense of hopelessness permeated the atmosphere, and he felt that it needed an injection of new energy and motivation in order to galvanize the organization. Tell your rabbi that hed better appear at our headquarters by tonight!. ", "To Save A World: Rav Aharon Kotler's Endless Activism", "25,000 MOURNERS AT Rabbi Aharon KOTLER'S RITES; Crowd Pays Tribute to Rabbi at East Side Synagogue", "30,000 March in Funeral Of Rabbi Aharon Kotler in Israel", With Fire In His Eyes: The Burning Mission of Rav Aharon Kotler, Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on Rabbi Aharon Kotler, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aharon_Kotler&oldid=1151408446, People from Lakewood Township, New Jersey, Articles having different image on Wikidata and Wikipedia, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Rabbi Gedalia Schorr (born 1910), Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaas, Rabbi Leib Heyman, Rav Beis Knesses HaGra, Jerusalem Israel, This page was last edited on 23 April 2023, at 21:38. He earns a mere $12 a week as a peddler, and hes donating his entire weekly salary to the yeshivah.. The energy he exuded, the pathos of his speech, and the glow of his face made it a surreal experience. The special guest of honor was Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, the former rosh yeshivah, who came all the way from Eretz Yisrael to savor his son-in-laws accomplishments in his stewardship of the yeshivah. The parting from his beloved talmidim was difficult, though he believed that this was the only way hed be able to rescue them. He is about 48 years, blue smiling eyes, small stature, powerful determination, and penetrating vision. The Rosh Yeshivah faced Morgenthau across the desk, and Morgenthau told him, Ransom payments we cant allow., The Rosh Yeshivah, his piercing eyes flashing with fury, spoke emphatically [in Yiddish]. The house of the rabbi shone with the splendor of(his son) the gaon. The man looked up and asked, Mah hashaah what time is it?. The name Yosef was added at age six when he contracted pneumonia, while Chaim was given together with Shneur because their firstborn, also named Shneur, had died in infancy. Reb Shmuel Teitzmaller, whose family owned the local construction firm that built the yeshivah, described this exuberance decades later in a Beth Medrash Govoha newsletter: You could see a simple laborer or one of the balabatim grab a free moment, run over to the construction site, grab a few bricks and hand it to a bricklayer. He was exhausted, and told his Rebbetzin that he wanted to rest a while before leaving. PDF 86 ve American Jewish Archives Journal Like most devout Jews in visa, Rav Shneur Zalman struggled to protect his children from the winds of change sweeping Eastern European Jewish youth. Upon their arrival at the train station in Baranovich, reports trickled in that a refugee crisis was brewing in Vilna, with overcrowding and food shortages. Other rabbis are (from 1. to r.) middle row: 7th, Shaul Goldman, Brooklyn; 9th, Shmuel Maslow, Brooklyn; 12th, Leib Polak, Denver; top row: 1st, Yaakov Zaretzky, Bnei Brak; 5th, Rav Shneur Kotler, 8th, Alter Pekier. One of his childhood friends later reminisced in the towns Yizkor (memorial) book: I would visit the house of the rabbi as a friend of the delightful child Arke (today Rav Aharon Kotler). Havent seen one of these in a while.. But what is difficult for a Russian principal, was utterly simple and straightforward for an illui from Knesses Yisrael. Rav Aharon loved these children. The creation of a farm settlement project, where the time of these men could be divided between tilling the soil and the continuation of their studies, would be a step forward in giving them a certain degree of independence and security. It had the added bonus of a steady stream of Jewish vacationers who could potentially serve as a fundraising base. Still, Polands economy was mired in an even worse depression, and Rav Aharon hoped that Jewish hearts and wallets would open to their needy brothers abroad. Years ago he knew a little child in Minsk, and he remembered giving money for this childs ticket to Slabodka. Rav Yaakov Teitelbaum, leader of the Zeirei Agudah in prewar Vienna and later the rav of Adas Yereim in Kew Gardens, told of a rabbinic gathering in Europe attended by Rav Chaim Ozer. Mrs. Frank agreed to donate $5,000 and help raise the remaining balance from wealthy friends. Rabbi Yaakov Tcherbochovsky, husband of Rav Aharons sister Devorah, served on the yeshivahs hanhalah as well. In a letter to Rav Chaim Ozer in December 1933, he explained: Time is very limited. Rabbi Hayim of Volozhin, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, and the Remaking of an American Jewish Prophecy 88 ve American Jewish Archives Journal But Yoshor's decision to live in the United States, given his devo tion to the late sage of Radun, is somewhat curious. My Blog rav aharon kotler's sister Rav Shneur Zalman refused to take part in the polemics some were hurling at his opponent, but those close to him saw that he was suffering greatly. Once the students of Knesses Beis Yitzchak locked the doors, preventing these students from entering. The House. They came with a value of avodahtefillah. The majority of students, however, chose to remain with the Rav of Slabodka, Rav Moshe Danishevsky, until Rav Chaim Rabinowitz (known to posterity as Rav Chaim Telzer) was hired as rosh yeshivah. He still recalls a Shabbos visit to the yeshivah by some rabbis who were visiting Lakewood for a convention. To his left are his brothers-in-law, Rav Sheftel Kramer and Rabbi Pesach Frank. Known in his youth as the Svislovitzer Ilui, the Torah prodigy from Svislovitz, his fame had spread throughout the Torah world of Lithuania, and he had risen to become the head of the Yeshiva of Kletsk. Rav Aharon later related how much he enjoyed talking in learning with Rav Katz. America, Rav Mordechai Shapiro answered. Life in Israel: The Frum Version Of The Kennedy Curse - Blogger Thanking him profusely, he blessed him with nachas and greatness in Torah from his children. He watched as those around him strayed from the faith their families had maintained for generations. When I talk about Rav Aaron and mibeis abba, I dont mean just his scholarship, his Torah, but the qualities of a gadol, the warmth and other great middos. The Bund sought to organize the Jewish working class, and to remake Jewish identity as well, with Yiddish culture replacing religious observance. In Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, Rav Aharon found his kindred spirit, someone who possessed the fire and urge to change the trajectory of Yiddishkeit in the country. Soon after arriving, the speaker began to berate him. As is traditional in chassidic circles, the Gerrer Rebbe offered the little boy an apple, which he declined saying he wasnt hungry. Hashem gave him certain strengths and abilities and when one sees results, one cannot let anything stand in the way, and must do whatever is possible to uphold the generation and fight for Yiddishkeit. Rabbi Shurin then added: Rav Isser Zalman shared something personal with me. He had re-sanctified a city by a simple relocation of 15 men!. He was quiet, calm, easygoing, a boy tender as silk, who spent day and night learning and serving the Creator. The Jewish community of Lakewood invited the Rebbe to explore the possibilities of establishing his court there and hosted him for three months in the spring of 1940. They obviously spoke Hebrew and, at least then, scarcely understood any Yiddish. He chose Lakewood, New Jersey, as the site for his new Yeshiva in America, because its location, far from the distractions of New York City, would enable his students to concentrate on their studies. Tens of thousands of Jewish children learn due to his energy and in his merit. In sheer desperation, some yeshivos decentralized by engaging in local fundraising in Poland, which was against the regulations of the Vaad HaYeshivos. Rav Aharon addressed the crowd and then Rav Dachowitz announced that for $12, one could cover the expenses of a student for a month. When the Nazis enacted a law in Germany during the 1930s banning traditional shechitah, Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg of Berlin wrote to halachic decisors of the time to elicit their opinions on whether German Jewry could rely on a leniency to stun the animals prior to shechitah. In Volozhin he was a student of his cousin the Beis HaLevi, and was so attached to him that when the Beis HaLevi left Volozhin to assume the rabbinate of Slutzk in 1865, he joined him. The younger students would remain with Rav Isser Zalman in Slutzk for the time being. Rav Aharon told me of their experience and emotions in leaving Kletzk. Toward the end of 1943, due to the dawning reality of the scope of the Final Solution, the Vaad expanded its rescue operations beyond yeshivah students and Torah scholars to the general rescue of European Jewry. Ads in the Poltava based Hamodia wished mazel tov to Rav Aharon and Chana Perel Meltzer upon their marriage. Who was the brave one? The rav of Kletzk, Rav Chaim Shimon Herensohn, is on Rav Aharons immediate right. The Mir rosh yeshivah, Rav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, understood that if Rav Aharon was exerting such energy to retrieve Rav Noach, then he must be worth keeping, and so argued that he already belonged to Mir. Then he rose from his armchair and, looking the Rosh Yeshivah straight in the eyes, said, Tell the rabbi, I am a Jew. ), The new couple settled in Slutzk, where Rav Aharon soon joined the faculty of his father-in-laws renowned Slutzk Yeshivah. Later it would be renamed the Vaad Hatzalah. Rav Schorrs student, Rabbi Nosson Scherman, related that Rav Schorrs parents had provided the young couple with mattresses for their stay in Kletzk. In an interview conducted with the president of Lakewood Yeshiva, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, a myth and legend that has been well-entrenched in the haredi world about famous Jewish composer and. Eventually Rav Aharon made it to Vladivostok, and after a short stint in Kobe, Japan boarded a steamer headed for San Francisco. It was not until after one oclock in the morning that Rav Aharon returned home. The Royalty of Torah - Hamodia.com It was therefore decided to split the yeshivah. united methodist church global methodist. In addition, following the Soviet takeover of Lithuania and the passing of Rav Chaim Ozer, Rav Aharon sensed that the American Vaad Hatzalah had lost its steam. If I say Im bigger, Ill be a baal gaavah and if I say Rav Chaim is bigger, Ill be a liar., Rav Chaim then riposted with glee, I say that Zalman Sender is both!. The interwar years saw steady growth of the Jewish population in Lakewood and its environs, including several Jewish chicken farmers in the 1920s. A Lithuanian tradition from the Vilna Gaon advised adding a prefix when using the name in the future. I am old and weaker, and I apologize that I cannot come visit you personally. Kletzk Yeshiva in Yanova. Its hard to conceive of such a thing now, when the names of Rav Aharon, Rav Moshe, and Rav Yaakov are uttered with such awe, but I was once in a car with the three gedolim en route to a wealthy individuals home to fundraise for Chinuch Atzmai. With Fire in His Eyes: The Burning Mission of Rav Aharon Kotler It is with this understanding, and for this purpose, that I am asking for your support.. (On one of Rav Aharons visits to Israel, a Yerushalmi Jew requested a brachah for his young son from Rav Aharon. The Yevsektsiya rightly recognized that Yiddishkeit could never coexist with Communism, and therefore aimed to destroy all institutions representing nationalism, culture and especially religion, from the traditional cheder and its melamed to the yeshivah and its dean. A simple peddler named Tzvi Moshe Cohen stood up and announced that he would pledge $12. Another talmid, who had been raised in relative comfort, once commented to Rav Aharon that he was having a hard time with the austere kollel lifestyle. Mrs. Bertha Rayner Frank was born in Baltimore in 1847 into a prestigious Jewish family of German origin. He encouraged quick action, as he was concerned that the universal impression left by the Chofetz Chaims passing would quickly dissipate. Ha Rav Aharon Kotler - Shema Yisrael The rosh yeshivah! Rav Shneur Zalman was described as short, thin, and weak, traits that young Arke inherited. Interestingly enough, though quite a few other postwar yeshivos proudly carried the names of their European antecedents, Rav Aharon never attempted to incorporate Kletzk into the name of the Lakewood yeshivah. A bird looks around and sees that it was created with wings, thereby it knows that it was endowed with special powers to be able to fly. As they entered the beis medrash, it was clear they were uncomfortable with what they saw. Rav Aharon and Rav Boruch Ber: They were once walking together and came to a door. The Rosh Yeshivah responded, ich kler, efsher iz dos atzlus Im thinking, maybe its just laziness!, At the wedding of Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski. For all of his intensive immersion in Torah study, including giving shiurim, and the burden of sustaining the yeshiva, especially after the Great Depression of 1929, Rav Aharon never lost sight. All other creatures cannot fly. Aside from Vaad Hatzalah of the war and immediate postwar years, he served in a leadership capacity in the Agudath Harabonim and presided over the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudas Yisrael. 'We never kicked Shlomo Carlebach out of our yeshiva' | 7 Even then, he displayed a sense of concern and responsibility for the wider Torah world, taking initiative and accepting burdens far beyond his own yeshivah. Rabbi Henoch Cohen, who served as Chinuch Atzmais North American director for nearly a half century, related a shocking episode. Shed often sit outside the dining room where a shiur was taking place and quietly mouth the answers to herself. Following Rav Reuven Grozovskys incapacitation in 1952, Rav Aharon assumed the role of chairman of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudath Yisrael of America. Although right now I really cant host you or help you fundraise, I also cant just absolve myself without doing anything. Rabbi Aharon Kotler shlita, his family, and some of the older students loaded their belongings onto a wagon and they themselves walked on foot, their heads bent and their hearts heavy.. This man is legally blind and hardly has any money to his name. Initial quarters were located on top of a Chinese laundry on Fourth Street, and the annual rent was $105. There were threethat led Klal Yisrael the Chofetz Chaim,. In 1904 the small Jewish community in Lakewood organized when Mr. Charles (Betzalel) Goldstein, an immigrant from Russia who had studied under Rav Leizer Gordon in Telz (Betzalel Day School in Lakewood carried his name), appealed to local residents to open a permanent minyan. In hindsight, this relatively overlooked aspect of Rav Aharons early leadership served as a prologue to his later efforts to build Torah across the ocean. The NKVD agent began to berate him. A talmid of Rav Shlomo Heiman in Torah Vodaath, Rav Schorr traveled to Kletzk following his marriage to study under Rav Aharon, remaining there for a year until the American embassy advised him to return home in the summer of 1939. Several years ago, we had the privilege of visiting Rav Yaakov Schiff, a son-in-law of the Brisker Rav and widely considered to be Rav Aharons prime talmid in Lakewood. On October 8, Rav Aharon traveled to Vilna to consult with Rav Chaim Ozer and other roshei yeshivah. Tears would well up in his eyes. His schedule included delivering a daily blatt shiur and the semichah shiur, where he readied scores of budding scholars for the rabbinate. It was a bustling marketplace of Torah. The official questioned Rav Aharon, Whom did you save out of Theresienstadt? Such was the incredible balancing act of Rav Aharons leadership of his people in so many ways., Rav Michel Shurkin describes with amazement how the gaon of the generation would fundraise nonstop, and work around the clock, all so that a Sephardic child in Dimona should learn some Torah. He named it Anaf (branch of) Etz Chaim after his alma mater of Volozhin. Rav Mendel Krawiec, later rosh yeshivah of RJJ, recalled arriving for his entrance exam in Rav Aharons home in Kletzk: The three-room apartment was sparsely furnished and was packed with yeshivah students who had come for their daily meal. He chaired the Rabbinical administration board of Torah Umesorah, and was on the presidium of the Agudas HaRabbonim of the U.S. and Canada. As the yeshivah grew, Rav Aharons own family grew as well. Birth of Rabbi Shneur Kotler, RY BMG-Lakewood, Birth of Rebbetzin Sara Pesha Schwartzman. He had just a handful of students at first, but he knew the yeshivah would grow. The Shechinah shines from him!. A Yid fun Amerike, the man mumbled to himself. Rav Isser Zalman believed the ploy was permitted, because he could retain that height by wearing the slats for the rest of his life. However, he hired the cab driver with one condition: The cab driver had to pick up anyone on the road that was also travelling there. Rav Aharon actually had two sets of talmidim. They even locked the doors and incapacitated his waiting automobile to try and prevent his departure. Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler (1918 - 24 June 1982) was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha (also known as the Lakewood Yeshiva) in Lakewood, New Jersey from 1962 to 1982. Did you ever see the Rosh Yeshivahs photograph? [3] A funeral service at the Congregation Sons of Israel Kalwarier on Manhattan's Lower East Side drew 25,000 mourners, with 200 officers from the New York City Police Department assigned to the event. On March 23, 1892, Lakewood was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature. Rav Ruderman remained bothered by this for quite some time. When Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky was encouraged by Rav Aharon to open his yeshivah in Philadelphia, he expressed concern: what kind of chinuch would his children receive in a city that lacked a proper religious educational infrastructure? He and his family were martyred during the Holocaust. During one bein hazmanim intersession, Rav Aharon had the opportunity to speak in learning with Rav Meir Simchah of Dvinsk (the Ohr Sameach), who was taken with Rav Aharon and implored his teachers, Take care of young Aharon, he has potential to emerge as a Rabbi Akiva Eiger of the generation.. On March 12, 1943, the sale was completed. He derided the value of secular knowledge by minimizing its achievement. While Rav Aharon regularly attended shiurim of Rav Boruch Ber, he also considered himself a talmid of Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, whose shiurim he attended as well. There he persuaded Rav Aharon to return to Slabodka, and thus the future Torah leader was preserved. Most of his students did not manage to escape and were murdered by the Nazis. Looking back, the . In 1903 he died suddenly, a death that many blamed on his pain over the upheaval. Amos Bunim recalled another eulogy Rav Aharon delivered at the funeral of the great Torah supporter Samuel Kaufman on Chanukah 1960: When they asked Rav Aharon to be maspid, he said that youre not permitted to be maspid on Chanukah, but the halachah is that if its chacham bfanav in the presence of a chacham its permitted. The image engraved in ones memory is more accurate than any photographic or artistic rendition. In interwar Poland, one would be hard pressed to find a rosh yeshivah younger than Rav Aharon Kotler; most of his fellow roshei yeshivah were twice his age. Rabbi Nathan Baruch contends that Rav Aharon felt that a public forum was not the proper venue to highlight the plight of the Jews, because he believed the nations of the world reveled in the tragedies befalling the Jewish People. Each Generation and Its Maimonides: The Maimonides of Rabbi Aharon A floundering Polish economy, devaluation of the Polish zloty and the yeshivahs growing debt meant that Rav Aharon would need to follow the path of other roshei yeshivah and travel abroad to raise funds. Prior to the construction of the Verrazano Bridge and Garden State Parkway, central New Jersey was a distant location from crowded New York City. The studentslistened attentively until the flow was interrupted by a quiet but assertive voice. His dual places of residence serve as a metaphor for this delicate attempt at equilibrium in his twin goals. He used his wealth to assist the nascent mussar movement by supporting the Slabodka Yeshivah and other mussar-linked institutions. He decided to consult with Rav Aharon who told him, Bshum oifen nisht! Prior to delivering the shiur, Rav Aharon would review it with a few select talmidim. We studied together with his father of blessed memory, and we spent many a mishmar (all-night learning session) together. On that day in Moscow, Nazi foreign minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop and Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov signed a non-aggression pact between the two regimes. Rav Aharon Kotler and the Cab There is a famous story of Rav Aharon Kotler zt"l wherein he hired a cab driver to take him somewhere. But Rav Aharons vision has prevailed. Rav Zelig Epstein, rosh yeshivah of Shaar HaTorah, once made a late-night appointment (as was common) with Rav Aharon to discuss an important matter. Right to Left: R. Shneur Kotler (unidentified), R. Aharon Cohen, R. Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, R. Aharon Kotler (holding the cup), and R. Yitzchok Chevroni, Reb Dov Wolowitz recalls driving Rav Aharon to a Moetzes meeting on the Lower East Side. Worked for her in 1967 when she was doing her PhD in political science and worked for the Albany legislature. Rav Aharon Kotlers sister Malka was relentless in trying to convince him to leave Slabodka, enroll in university, and join the modern world. JHS: The Life of Rav Aharon Kotler: Origins of Greatness - part 1 - Blogger Rabbi Perr is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Derech Ayson, Far Rockaway, NY.

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