Even after this harrowing journey, Rav Aharon wasnt about to rest on his laurels. I dont have a proper answer. Left to right: Irving Bunim, Hon. I remember just one time; we were together in Romshishuk for vacation. Rav Isser Zalman immigrated to Eretz Yisrael in 1925 and obtained a certificate on behalf of one of his talmidim in the yeshivah who wanted to go as well. Rav Grossnass relates, Rav Isser Zalman left the room a half hour or forty-five minutes later, and I myself heard him saying, I wouldnt stay in Radin if I was paid all the money in the world, absolutely not! It turned out that the Chofetz Chaim had told him, I envy you. Israeli Agudah politician Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz once asked a man whose lifestyle seemed different from Rav Aharons ideals why he was a donor to Beth Medrash Govoha. There was, however, a problem. Rav Aharon used to say, The acronym of Rosh Mesivta is RAM, which when reversed are the letters MAR, which means bitter. 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. Why do you write such nonsense? Following his daring escape from Nazi occupied Poland, he sought out a place to reestablish the Chassidic court of Lubavitch. Many young orphans found themselves in Aix-Les-Bains after the war, and Rav Leibel realized that if he didnt act quickly, he would lose these drifting young Jews to the various secular refugee aid groups. We created a basis for the continual support of the yeshivah last year, but now it isnt sufficient. Rav Aharon is much more than just the rosh yeshivah of Kletzk!, Rav Aharon delivering a shiur in Kletzk In listening to Rav Aharon, one always sensed the genius of a deep and penetrating mind arriving at simple conclusions. American rabbi; founder of Beth Medrash Govoha, World War II and move to the United States, "Rabbi Aaron Kotler Dead at 71; Jersey Rabbinical School Dean", "Enrollment in the N.J. But Rav Aharons vision has prevailed. To the postwar generation, the practice of Torah lishmah was relegated to history books and serial novels in the Yiddish dailies. there was suddenly a commotion at the head table. Ha Rav Aharon Kotler - Shema Yisrael He used his wealth to assist the nascent mussar movement by supporting the Slabodka Yeshivah and other mussar-linked institutions. Charles Goldstein decided to solicit a donation. It was after the treaty was signed between the Bolsheviks and the Poles, placing Slutzk under Soviet control. Rav Shneur Zalman, the third son of Rav Moshe Pines, was born during the reign of Czar Nicholas I, when the dreaded Cantonist laws were in effect. German Jews arrived in the 19th century and built institutions of chesed, Jewish hospitals, philanthropic organizations such as the Joint but abandoned traditional Jewish observance. He had recently met withAgudath Harabonim emissary Dr. Samuel Schmidt in Yanova, Lithuania, wherehis yeshivah had relocated. It eventually became the light that disseminated Torah across France under the leadership of Rav Chaim Chaikin, and yet another initiative of Rav Aharon that wielded a monumental impact. And I was young. The donations are larger and the cause remains on their minds as a result as well.. Eventually, Rav Aharon discovered that his mail was being censored and became extremely upset, and decided to leave the yeshivah. Son of Rabbi Shneur Zalman Pines-Kotler, ABD Sislowitz and Sara Pesha Pines Completely oblivious to the guests sitting on the other side of the room or the dinner awaiting him on the table, he sat down to learn with incredible passion and energy, as if it were the middle of the day. Gib a brocha zohl ehr verrin a kannai bless him that he become a zealot, the father pressed, but Rav Aharon demurred, If hell become a talmid chacham hell know how to conduct himself.). If one is able to accomplish this much, he must do even more. rav aharon kotler's sistersour milk bread recipes no yeastsour milk bread recipes no yeast Believing that unity was crucial to rescue, Rav Aharon advised putting aside political and ideological differences and closing ranks among all Orthodox factions to further rescue activities. Of course, he did not attend. His letters back home from that trip are an important source towards understanding those tumultuous months. MYTH BUSTED: Reb Shlomo Carlebach Was Never Kicked Out Of BMG [WATCH Do not accept it; for neither artist nor camera can capture the fire in his eyes, the radiance on his face, the exhilaration of his presence. In From Kletzk to Siberia, Rabbi Alter Pekier writes: On Erev Shabbos, November 8, 1940 the yeshivahs faithful secretary Reb Berel Starobin was typing Rav Aharons chiddushim when agents of the NKVD burst in and began conducting a search. Reb Shraga Feivels youngest daughter Devorah Kramer recalled the eulogy delivered by Rav Yitzchok Elchonon Spektor, the Kovno Rav, at her fathers levayah. Several had even gotten married in Europe. For saving 24 rabbis from the Nazis, and with Rav Aharon Kotler s blessing, Joe Bonanno - the Mafia godfather - lived to 97 years old and died in bed. Some roshei yeshivah felt that the college challenge could be solved by creating an external college option for yeshivah students. As the Jewish Socialist party, the Bund, began to make inroads in the region, workers began to organize and demand better salaries and working conditions. She was to remark to her friend that she had never seen her father-in-law raise his voice or get angry at anything. 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. Then he rose from his armchair and, looking the Rosh Yeshivah straight in the eyes, said, Tell the rabbi, I am a Jew. From Shanghai to Seagate - Mishpacha Magazine Rav Aharon once brought one of his grandsons along with him to a meeting with the Beis Yisrael of Gur. In addition to sacrificing Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, who was one of his roshei yeshivah in Slabodka, the Alter sent 14 of his finest students to Slutzk. Colleges and Universities by Universities, by Level and Attendance Status, Fall 2018", "11 things to know about Lakewood amid fraud sweep", "New Jersey Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather", "Lakewood's Orthodox population keeps growing. A handful of these improvised yeshivos became formal institutions and gained some renown, such as the famous Blumkas Kloiz and a yeshivah run by Rav Shlomo Goloventzitz, which served as a feeder for Slabodka. For the decade between 1925-35, Rav Yechezkel Levenstein served as mashgiach, and he was succeeded by Rav Yosef Leib Nenedik, who like his predecessor was a mussar product of the great Kelm Talmud Torah. Following World War I, the Lakewood Township embarked on the construction of a memorial to local soldiers who had perished, inviting famed cantor Yossele Rosenblatt to sing Kel Malei at the consecration. It is a great honor to stand at the helm of a packed beis medrash and teach Torah, that is RAM lofty and elevated. Thousands of straying children came home in his merit they returned to the Torah, they became Shabbos observant, they adorn Tefillin, they are occupied with Torah study, and they are building homes of Torah. In the postwar period, Rav Aharon would be universally recognized as an Agudas Yisrael leader in the United States, and more surprisingly, even in Israel. The main attraction in Lakewood remained its hotels, which by then numbered more than 100, many of which catered primarily to Jewish patrons. Though Rav Aharons name is most closely linked to Lakewood, the impact of his Torah trailblazing goes far beyond a single yeshivah. He served as the Mashgiach of Beth Medrash Govoha for a half-century before his passing in 1998. In a fiery mussar shmuess (see Mishnas Rav Aharon 3:250), he thundered that "hakoras hatov is the basis of serving Hashem." In life, he never forgot a favor from Jew or . Erupting in torrents of thought like a volcano, hed cite a tradition from Rav Yisrael Salanter that Torah is studied with venom, not with calm equanimity or coldness and apathy. He spoke quickly. His heart pulsed with joy as 25,000 strong rejoiced in lockstep. When the Frank family heard that Rav Archik was the leading candidate for rosh yeshivah, they vehemently protested. My first memories of my grandfather are from when we lived in Hartford, CT with my uncle Rav Yankev Katz [1]. The Mizrachi leader and Warsaw-based lawyer Zorach Warhaftig, who enjoyed a close relationship with many leading roshei yeshivah including Rav Aharon and would later play a vital role in the rescue of yeshivah students and roshei yeshivah during the war years, recounted in his memoirs his conversation with Rav Aharon regarding one facet among others of his general opposition to Zionism: In my many conversations with Rav Aharon Kotler, similar to my ones with Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, I got the impression that they view the study of Torah and the love of Torah as an all-encompassing outlook. Ads in the Poltava based Hamodia wished mazel tov to Rav Aharon and Chana Perel Meltzer upon their marriage. Eventually, the Epsteins made their presence known. My grandfather used to come for mini-vacations sometimes. Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky then rose and declared, I will explain why the Kletzker Rosh Yeshivah feels the way he does. He then proceeded to share their Slabodka experiences, how Rav Reuven played a crucial role in their transfer from Minsk to Slabodka, and how he looked after their welfare there. Fearful of these. Rav Isser Zalman then closeted himself in a room with the Chofetz Chaim to discuss the matter. Picking up the phone, I heard a voice say in Yiddish, This is Kotler. Rav Aharon proudly wrote to Rav Yosef Shub of the Vaad HaYeshivos that aside from Mir and Radin, there is no yeshivah (in that region of Poland where most yeshivos were located) larger than ours.. But what can I do? In Lakewood, however, he began delivering them on a regular basis. While their fellow Jews were suffering in Europe, there were no sweets or meat to be found, with the exception of Shabbos. In advance of his arrival, The Morgen Journal profiled the Kletzker rosh yeshivah: Rav Aharon was already known in his youthful years in Slabodka as the Sislovitzer Illui. Many thousands received a solid Torah education in or because of the Lakewood Yeshiva and its many branches during its first fifty years. They were then instructed to wait for the Alter to return from Kelm where he had spent Yom Tov with his family. When RIETS began searching for a new home as it grew under the Meitscheter Illui in the 1920s, the Gould Estate (currently Georgian Court University) was one of the locations they considered, before settling on Washington Heights. But in the wake of the Holocaust, great Torah scholars were an endangered species. Named Chachmei Tzarfat after the great Rishonim who had once resided there, the yeshivah started with a group of DPs in Aix-Les-Baines. , during the height of World War II, Rav Aharon Kotler, founder of the Lakewood Yeshiva, learned that several young Polish rabbinical students were detained in Italy. I cannot even describe the bitterness and pain we felt upon my departure. A day that lives in infamy in the annals of the yeshivah world. Something like I would imagine the Chasam Sofer and Rav Akiva Eiger spoke. Shortly after her marriage, she developed an illness that left her crippled. (While its unclear what became of his son Moshe, thankfully, his younger daughter Devorah was spared from this plague.). It wasnt in the nature of the Sislovitzer to allow his true brilliance to be heard. Dor-Shav (Dershowitz), Zecharia (2022). During the final decades of his life, Rav Aharon entered a phase of leadership that boggles the mind in terms of its scope and activism. Years later he heard that this child had somehow ended up in America and opened a yeshivah. To save a soul let alone to save Klal Yisrael it is truly a tremendous zechus! He choked up, and remained crying at the podium for ten minutes without saying a word. Rav Aharon Kotler, rosh yeshivah of the famous Kletzk yeshivah, had recently arrived in the United States, and theyd come to hear him speak as much out of pity and respect as out of ideology. (Nearly a century later, these two illustrious families came together once again when Rav Moshe Mordechais great-grandson, Rav Yosef Chevroni current rosh yeshivah of Chevron-Slabodka married Sarah Bakst, a great-granddaughter of Rav Archik. At that time Vaad Hatzalah had one million dollars ready for transfer, to be used as barter for Jewish captives who were held in the claws of the accursed German murderers. To that end, the American Hebrew Theological University was chartered in 1946 and was set to open in Brooklyn with the endorsement and involvement of prominent roshei yeshivah as a way of contending with the college issue. But it was his partnership with Torah luminary Rav Aharon Kotler as well as his important connections with Washington insiders that advanced his advocacy on behalf of Orthodox Jewry. Rav Moshe Leibel was a Gerrer chassid who survived the war in the occupied town of Aix-Les-Bains in Southern France where he posed as a doctor while serving as a mohel for the local population. With his arrival in Slabodka, he enjoyed a . 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. Husband of Rebbetzin Chana Peryl Kotler There is no doubt that even the greatest rabbanim and lomdim of New York will be amazed when they will have the zechus to get to know the gaon, Rav Aharon Kotler, the Kletzker Rosh Yeshivah, who is great not only in his Torah learning, but also in worldly knowledge.. The House. Niles contacted General Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied Forces in Europe. They were concerned that love of Zion and Jerusalem would compete for adherents among Jewish youth, and that the latter love would take the place of the former.. Mrs. Bertha Rayner Frank was born in Baltimore in 1847 into a prestigious Jewish family of German origin. He had re-sanctified a city by a simple relocation of 15 men!. Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and Moshe Mordechai Epstein. During his trip to Europe, Rav Isser Zalman visited the Chofetz Chaim in Radin. Nobody is interested in that stuff anymore!, Rav Aharon replied firmly, I wont allow you to ridicule my religion; the Soviet constitution guarantees freedom of religion., The agent was stunned by his response. He asked his close confidante, Mr. Stephen Klein, to oversee the organization, and he embarked on a relentless fundraising campaign. Rav Aharon Kotler zt"l came to America from Europe in 1942, bringing with him an unprecedented level of Torah learning, a pure and uncompromising dedication to Torah, and a Torah that was. The world will yet survive without another one. As the great activist and builder of Americas postwar Torah world, Rav Aharon had no choice but to remain fixated on the sole goal and vision of generating a Torah revolution in his new country. The economy was finally on the upswing, but the depression wouldnt end until 1939 and funds were still tight for many. In order to evade conscription, Rav Moshe obtained papers that named Shneur Zalman the only son of the Kotler family, thus exempting him from the draconian Czarist decree. Rav Aharon told him, Your children will not have to worry. Today his children and grandchildren are major supporters of Torah. Rav Yechiel Mordechai Gordon of the Lomza Yeshivah was traveling to Detroit, as it was already scheduled for him earlier, therefore I dont know yet where we will be for Pesach.. He was right. Rav Pam didn't want us to become selective, sectarian followersof Gedolim. Reminiscing in Pinkas Slutzk, Rabbi Moshe Yissachar Goldberg, later a rav in New Orleans, described the painful scene: That winter day when the yeshivah was exiled from Slutzk to Kletzk is well preserved in my memory. Along with another young activist named Moshe Berger, the duo spent the entire night drafting a new dossier, after which Mike got on a 5:00 a.m. train to Washington and managed to find a sympathetic State Department official to send an authorization letter to the US Embassy in Moscow. To appreciate this saga, we fast-forward a half-century to Tel Aviv, Israel: In the mid-50s, Rav Mordechai Shapiro, a talmid of Rav Aharon Kotler ztzl, traveled to Israel. His yeshivah had already escaped the Soviets 18 years earlier from Slutzk, crossing the border illegally into Poland. Rav Aharon at a town meeting in Kletzk (second row, third from left). Even the trip from Minsk to Slabodka required planning; namely, a donor who would fund it. One by one, both men and women came forward with donations: money, bracelets, rings, silver pieces, gold pieces just as during the building of the Mishkan, they offered whatever they had, and they didnt stop there. The travails of the months Rav Aharon spent on the road are evident in letters he wrote during this time. 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. Shortly thereafter, the border between neutral and (somewhat) democratic Lithuania and its neighbors, the Soviet Union and Nazi-occupied Poland, was sealed. Rav Aharon emphasized that while Rav Yitzchak Meir was his brother-in-law, he was submitting his candidacy strictly based on his merits. I fully believe that whatever comes out of the Chofetz Chaims mouth is prophecy. Now the entire landscape has changed. Years later in Baltimore, a former student at Knesses Beis Yitzchak, Mr. Harry Wolpert, described the scene: When Rav Leizer saw that hundreds of yeshivah students had arrived, he skipped the formalities and immediately launched into a shiurwith his trademark intensity. Such was an encounter withRav Aharon Kotler. The name Pines was derived from the words, al pines by a miracle, marking a miraculous salvation that took place generations prior. With penetrating vision and powerful determination, he inspired a Torah revolution on three continents but thats just part of the story. We talk to a rabbi about why, and what it means. Despite the burgeoning vacation industry, it lacked the typical big-city distractions. Almost as quickly as hed been interrupted, Rav Leizer shot back, Du ploiderst vi a shaigetz! Most of the students left until just a small group remained. In his memoirs, visa resident David Lewis (later a leader in the Canadian Bund) described how soon after the onset of Shabbos, local youths would paste their leaflets to the door of the main shul in town, knowing that they couldnt be removed by the Shabbos-observant attendees. In addition to their regular shiurim, Rav Isser Zalman and Rav Aharon delivered halachah shiurim in hilchos Gittin and Choshen Mishpat to enhance the talmidims understanding of the relevant sugyos they were studying. Funding during this time was provided by both the Joint Distribution Committee, as well as a new organization established at Rav Chaim Ozers request to assist the refugee yeshivos continue to function.