The update of Jewish History of this week

YAHRTZEITS

Sunday, 2 Cheshvan

Rav Baruch Hager, the Seret-Viznitz Rebbe, the Makor Baruch (1895-1963). Born to Rav Yisrael of Vizhnitz and Rebbetzin Hinda, a daughter of Rav Meir Horowitz of Dzikov, Rav Baruch was named after his grandfather, the Imrei Baruch of Vizhnitz, who had passed away two years earlier. In 1912, Rav Baruch married Henia, a daughter of Rav Yissachar Dov of Belz. He married a second time, to Tzyril, a daughter of Rav Eliezer Nisan of Dzikov/Tsfas, in 1923. He then became rav of Polein-Riskova, and then served as the Rav of Kotzman, Romania, for nine years. He established a Talmud Torah, a Beis Yaakov school and worked extensively for Agudas Yisrael. In 1935, Rav Baruch moved to Seret, a Romanian town of about 2,000 Jews. The Ahavas Yisrael passed away soon afterwards and Rav Baruch became the Admor of Seret-Vizhnitz. It is estimated that of about 150,000 Romanian Jews exiled to Transnistria (including all those from Seret), some 90,000 perished of hunger, cold and persecution. Rav Baruch was ransomed for a huge sum in Adar of 1944 and made his way back to Romania. He finally moved to Antwerp, Belgium in 1946 together with his brother, the Imrei Chaim, and they stayed there for close to a year. He arrived in Eretz Yisrael in Sivan 1947, and set off to Haifa where he set up his court. There Rav Baruch established a yeshivah, a Talmud Torah and other Torah institutions. This laid the ground for the establishment of the famous community of Ramat Vizhnitz, built on the side of Haifa's Mount Carmel, laying its foundation stone on the 3rd day of Tammuz, 1954. Sadly, Rav Baruch passed away at the age of sixty-eight before the culmination of his building project.

Rav Elazar Simcha Wasserman (1992). The oldest son to his illustrious father, Rav Elchanan Wasserman, and a nephew of Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, Rav Simcha learned at Novardok for several years, beginning shortly after his Bar Mitzvah, under the Alter of Novardok. He was also very close to the Chafetz Chaim. After his last visit with him, his father sent him to Strasbourg, France, where he started a yeshiva (at the time, the only yeshiva in France). He stayed until 1938, when he moved to America. He first taught at Torah Vodaas, where he became close to Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz. He worked closely with Rav Aharon Kotler in the Vaad Hatzalah during WWII. In 1944, Rav Simcha established the Bais Yehuda Day School in Detroit, the first in Michigan, and appointed Rav Avraham Abba Freedman as a Rebbe. Their first Shavuos, they were the only two to learn all night in the Beis Midrash. When Rav Simcha left in 1953, he left Rav Avraham Abba, who stayed another 50 years. He then founded the West Coast Talmudic Seminary (WCTS), or Ohr Elchanan (named after his father) in Los Angeles. He asked Chabad to take over the building and school in 1977. In 1979, he and his rebetzen (daughter of the Novardok rav, Rav Meir Abowitz) fulfilled a lifelong dream by moving to Eretz Yisrael. Together with Rav Moshe Chadash, he established Yeshiva Ohr Elchanan in Yerushalayim. Rav Simcha and his rebbetzin never had children. Yet, Rav Simcha was considered by many to be a leading authority on the subject of child-rearing.

Monday, 3 Cheshvan

Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin (1797-1850). Born to Reb Shalom, the Rebbe of Prohibisht (who was a son of Reb Avraham HaMalach, the son of the Maggid of Mezerich). He was engaged to the Rav of Berditchev at the age of seven; six years later, the chasuna took place. When Reb Yisrael turned sixteen his older brother, Reb Avraham (who had succeeded their father), was niftar, leaving no children. He was then succeeded by Reb Yisrael. When word reached the Rebbe that the Russian Czar intended to build a big church in the Old City of Yerushalayim, the Rebbe summoned Reb Nisan Bak who lived in Yerushalayim. Reb Nisan arrived there a few days ahead of the Russians and succeeded in buying the plot of land. The Czar was forced to buy a different plot of land, known today as the Russian Compound. The shul was known as the "Reb Nisan Bak Shul" and stood until 1948 when it was destroyed by the Arabs. Following the orders of the Czar, the Rebbe was locked up in the Kiev dungeons. The Rebbe spent 22 months locked in a small dark and damp cellar. A few days after the Rebbe was freed he fled Russia and settled in the town of Sadiger. The Rebbe's derech was carried on through his six sons. The Rebbe's oldest son, Reb Shalom Yosef, was niftar less than a year after his father and was succeeded by his son Reb Yitzchak, who became the first Bohusher Rebbe. The Ruzhiner's second son, Reb Avraham Yaakov, took his father's place in Sadiger. He had two sons, the eldest, Reb Yitzchak, was the first Boyaner Rebbe and the younger son, Reb Yisrael, was rebbe in Sadiger. The third son of the Ruzhiner was Reb Dov Ber who was rebbe in Lieov and the fourth son, Reb Menachem Nachum, was rebbe in Sthefanesht. The fifth son was Reb Dovid Moshe, the Chortkover Rebbe, and the sixth son was Reb Mordechai Shraga, the Husyatiner Rebbe. The Ruzhiner also had four daughters. The third daughter, Miriam, was married to Reb Menachem Mendel of Vishnitz, founder of the Vishnitzer dynasty.

Rav Yitzchak, son of Rav Chaim of Volozhin (1848)

Rav Eliezer of Dzikov (1860)

Rav Yosef Zundel of Salant (Lithuania) (1786-1865), teacher of R Yisrael Salanter; learned under Rav Chaim Volozhiner, then after his petira in 1821, he would make trips to learn with Rav Akiva Eiger. Moved to Eretz Israel December 3, 1837. Father-in-law of Rav Shmuel Salant.

Rav Yehuda Leib of Kapust (1866)

Rav Eliyahu Horoshovsky, Rav of Drohbitz and author of Pnei Eliyahu and Ezur Eliyahu (1883).

Rav Yitzchak Zelig Morgenstern, the Sokolover Rebbe (1864-1939). Born in Kotzk, he was the great - grandson of the Kotzker Rebbe. Married at the age of 18, he became Rav of Sokolov, a town near Shedlitz, at the age of 30. There he established the Yeshiva Beis Yisrael. In 1905, he succeeded his father as the Rebbe of Pilov. After a visit to Eretz Yisrael in 1924, he exhorted his followers to leave the Diaspora and settle the land. After the outbreak of World War II, he moved to Otwock, a village outside Warsaw. His eldest son, the Rabbi of Wengrov was stabbed to death by the Germans.

Rav Shabsi Sheftel Weill, Rav of Simani, Hungary (1943).

Rav Mordechai Miller, principal of Gateshead Seminary (1920-2000); one of the closest students of Rav Eliyahu Dessler. R. Miller held a postgraduate degree in law. He had a promising future in the professional world. His uncle had a law firm in London and with his great talents he would have been given a good position. But he gave it all up in order to spend his life al haTorah ve'al ho'avodoh.

Rav Avraham Aba Zions (1911-1995). Born in Brisk, Poland. His father passed away when Rav Aba was just nine-years-old. His mother would bring him to one of the talmidei chachomim in Brisk to have him tested every week. When Rav Aba was twelve-years-old, he was sent him to learn at the yeshiva of Rav Moshe Sokolovsky, author of the Imrei Moshe. Rav Aba was very close to the Imrei Moshe until the latter's petirah in 1931, and he assisted with the publishing of the Imrei Moshe's sefer on Maseches Beitzah, "Meleches Yom Tov." After a few years, Rav Aba went to Kaminetz to learn by Rav Baruch Ber Lebowitz. In or about the year 1936, Rav Aba returned to Brisk, starting a Talmud Torah there. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, Rav Aba escaped to Vilna. He was instrumental in the printing of Rav Baruch Ber's sefer Birchas Shmuel. From there he joined the Mirrer Yeshiva bochurim as they traveled to Kobe, Japan, and eventually to Shanghai, China. After the war, Rav Aba came to New York and accepted a position as Rav of Congregation Knesses Israel in The Bronx, where he served for 28 years. In 1948, Rav Aba married Rivka Tellem, of Tavrig, Lithuania, whose family had settled in Newark.

Rav Shimon Groner, Mashgiach, Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin (1932-2005). Born in Brownsville, NY, to Rabbi Schnayer Zalman and Fayga Rochel Groner. Reb Schnayer Zalman was born in Yerushalayim, a scion of the well-known Grossman family, and he was a talmid of Yeshivas Eitz Chaim. He passed away when Shimon was only fourteen. Reb Shimon went to Chaim Berlin, where the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yitzchak Hutner treated Shimon like a son. Rabbi Groner was married in 1959 to Nechama Dubba Fishbein and continued his learning in the Kollel Gur Aryeh of Chaim Berlin. He taught the seventh and ninth grades in Yeshiva Ohr Yisrael of Forest Hills and from there was called by Rav Hutner to help found the Mesivta Chaim Berlin in Flatbush. After four years, he became a maggid shiur in the beis medrash, and in 1978 was appointed mashgiach ruchni, a post he held for his remaining 27 years.

Tuesday, 4 Cheshvan

Rav Kalonimus Kalman Shapira, Piasetsna Rebbe, author of Chovas Hatalmidim and Aish Kodesh (1889-1944). His father, Rav Elimelech of Grodzisk, was a direct descendant of the Magid of Kozhnitz and of the "Noam Elimelech" of Lizhensk. He was named Klonimus Kalmish after his maternal grandfather, the renowned "Maor Vashemesh." In 1905, Rav Klonimus Kalmish married Rachel Chaya Miriam, the daughter of Rav Yerachmiel Moshe of Kozhnitz. She helped him prepare his drashas and seforim, even adding pertinent insights of her own. After the Warsaw Ghetto uprising was crushed in Nissan 1943, Rav Klonimus Kalmish was taken to the Trevaniki work camp near Lublin. Prisoners who were completely "worked out" by exhaustion and starvation were removed and sent to the Treblinka and Rav Klonimus Kalmish met his death there on 4 Cheshvan, 1944.

Rav Aryeh Leib [Aryeh Zev] ("Reb Leib") Gurwitz, rosh yeshivas Gateshead, author of Roshei Shearim (1982)

Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Dan Landa, the Strikover Rebbe (1943). The son of Rav Elimelech Menachem Mendel Landau, he was murdered by the Nazis.

Rav Yoav Yehoshua Weingarten of Kintzk, the Chelkas Yoav (1845-1923). His foundation in learning was established by Rav Zev Nachum Borenstein, the Agudas Eizov, but his rav muvchak was his son, Rav Avraham Borenstein, the Avnei Nezer, who was only 6 years his elder. In 1883, Rav Yoav accepted the positions of Rav and Rosh yeshiva in Litomirsk. In 1889, he became Rav of Gustinin, and founded a yeshiva there. From 1894 until his petira, he served as Rav in Kintzk. In 1894, he published Chlkas Yoav. He also published a sefer called Kava Dekesheisa, 103 unanswered kushyos on Shas intended to whet the minds of bnei yeshiva. After the petira of the Avnei Nezer, Rav Yoav accepted the authority of his son, the Shem MiShmuel. After his own petira, his only son, Rav Meir succeeded him as Rav of Kintzk. His son held the post for 27 years until he and his entire family were murdered.

Wednesday, 5 Cheshvan

Rav Tzvi Hirsh Kalisher

Rav Meir Heilprin, Rav and Av Beis Din of Lublin (1722)

Rav Moshe Birdogo, son of Rav Avraham. Rav Moshe resided in western Morocco and was known as the Rosh Mashbir (1730)

Rav Avraham Halevi Zions, Rosh Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael in New York

Rav Avraham Rice, pioneer of the Baltimore Jewish community and founder of one of the first Hebrew schools in the U.S. (1862)

Thursday, 6 Cheshvan

Rav Yehuda Hachasid, founder of the Churva shul in Yerushalayim (1700)

Rav Shlomo Dovid Yehoshua Weinberg, the Admor Hatzair of Slonim (1943)

Rav Yechiel Menachem of Alexander-America (1988)

Friday, 7 Cheshvan

Rav Yehuda Meir Shapiro of Lublin (1887-1933). His father, Rav Yaakov Shimshon Katz of Shatz, Romania, was a descendent of Rav Pinchas Koretz, a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. His mother, Margala, was the daughter of Rav Shmuel Yitzchak Schor, author of Minchas Shai, and a descendent of the author of Tevuas Shor. He was also a descendent of Rav Bechor Shor of Orleans, one of the Baalie Tosefos. He was married in 1906 and took his first appointment, Rav of Galina, in 1911. In 1921, he became Rav of Sanok, then in 1924 Rav of Piotrkov. It was while there that he wrote his sefer Or HaMeir. Also in 1923, he began the first cycle of Daf Yomi, having shared this idea at the first Knessiah Gedolah of Agudath Yisrael the previous year. That first cycle began on Rosh Hashana in 1923 and was completed 2702 days later on Tu Bishvat in 1931. His other major project was to found the yeshiva Chachmei Lublin, in 1930.

Rav Simcha Elberg, editor of Pardes journal

Rav Yehuda Tzvi Eichenstein of Rozdol (or Rozla), author of Daas Kedoshim (1791-1847). The son of Rav Moshe of Sambor and son-in-law and successor of Rav Zvi Hirsch of Zidachov, he became the Rebbe of Rozdol and was considered one of the leading kabbalists of his generation.

Rav Nosson Dovid Rabinowitz of Shidlova [or Shidlovtze] (1865)

Rav Yerachmiel Tzvi of Biala-Shedlitz (1905)

Rav Yisrael Weltz, Rav of Budapest and author of Teshuvos Divrei Yisrael (1973)

Rav Avraham Meisles, mechutan of the Rema (1599)

Rav Shimon Deutsch of Dobormil, author of Nachalas Shimon (1801)

Rav Tzvi Hersh of Tomoshov, a talmid of Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (1870)

Rav Dovid of Sevorn (1914)

Shabbos, 8 Cheshvan

Rav Menachem Nachum Kaplan (Nachumke) of Horodna, Lithuania (1811-1879). When he was nine years olf, he lived in the home of Reb Yehuda Leib Ganker and learned with this wealthy man every morning. Later, he wandered through Lithuania until he came to Amshina, where he studied under Rav Avraham Kahane. Eventually, he was accepted to the Mirrer yeshiva and became close to its mashgiach, Rav Yisrael Heller. He married the daughter of wealthy man, but after a number of years, his father-in-law died. Poverty- stricken, Reb Nachumke took a job as a shamash in the Chevras Shas Beis Midrash in Korodna. However, his fame spread, and many throughout eastern Europe came to observe him and learn from him. Among those was the Chafetz Chaim, then only 15 years old.

Rav Yaakov Rosenheim, founder of Agudas Yisrael (1870-1965).

Rav Meir of Narbonne (HaMeili) (1190-1263), author of Sefer HaMeoros (halachic material on Berachos, Chullin, and Seder Moed). Died in Toledo, Spain.

Rav Meshulam Shaltiel (1870-1926). Born in Sofia, he moved to Yerushalayim while still very young.

Rav Moshe Yosef HaKohen Tawil, zaken rabbanei Aram Soba (Aleppo, Syria) (1977). Founded the Degel HaTorah yeshivah with Rav Shlomo Zafrani.

OTHER EVENTS OF JEWISH HISTORY

Sunday, 2 Cheshvan

• Joseph II of Austria rescinds the law forcing Jews to wear a distinctive badge, 1781. The regulation had been in effect since 1267, more than 500 years.
• Pogrom in Odessa took 300 Jewish lives, 1905.
• Nazis close the 124 year-old Mir Yeshiva, 1939. Its students flee to Lithuania and are saved after spending the war years in Shanghai.
• Nazis murder 10,000 Jews in Vilna, 1941
• Last of Adens Jews arrives in Israel, 1967.

Monday, 3 Cheshvan

• King Cyrus of Persia formally conquers Babylon, c. 369 BCE
• Constantine the Great (306-337) is the first Roman emperor to impose laws radically limiting the rights of Jews as citizens of the Roman Empire, a privilege conferred upon them by Caracalla in 212. The laws he passed in 329 prohibited, under penalty of death, the marriage of a Jew with a Christian woman and Jewish circumcision of slaves, punishes with death Jewish persecution of Jewish converts to Christianity and imposes penalties on proselytes to Judaism. He also renewed the law prohibiting entry to Yerushalayim. As Christianity grew in power in the Roman Empire it influenced the emperors to limit further the civil and political rights of the Jews. Most of the imperial laws that deal with the Jews since the days of Constantine were adopted and expanded in the Latin Codex Theodosianius (438) and in the Latin and Greek code of Justinian (534). The Justinian Code entrenched the second-class status of citizenship of the Jews in the medieval world. The real significance of Roman law for Jews is that it exerted a profound influence on subsequent Christian and even Muslim discriminatory legislation on Jews.
• King Edward I expels last of the 16,000 Jews from England, 1290.
• Volumes of the Talmud were burned in Venice, 1553
• Germany occupied Kharkov - 20,000 Jews fall into Nazi hands, 1941

Tuesday, 4 Cheshvan

• Rambam reached Yerushalayim, 1165, six months after his arrival in Eretz Yisroel. He and his family celebrated the date as a private holiday.
• 180 Jews killed in Munich, 1285
• Torquemada was appointed Inquisitor-General of Spain, 1483
• "Red Purim" in which the Jewish community in Algiers was saved from the navy of Karl V and the Spanish Admiral Doria which tried to capture the Algerian coast, 1541
• Austria's Jews were forbidden to have the first names of Christian saints, 1834
• Leo Pinsker, a Russian Jew seeking a secular solution to Jewrys ills, publishes his "Autoemancipation" in 1882 as a result of the Russian pogroms of the previous year. Pinsker advocated establishing a homeland as a cure for anti-Semitism. Eretz-Yisrael was not his original suggestion and only later did he join the fledgling Zionist movement.
• Romanian soldiers massacre 26,000 Jews in Odessa, 1941.
• The American Jewish Relief Committee was established by Jacob H. Schiff, Louis Marshall, and Felix Warburg, 1914. It soon combined with the Central Relief Committee founded by Orthodox leaders and the Peoples Relief Committee representing labor, into the American Joint Distribution Committee.
• Nazis liquidate Riga ghetto, 1943

Wednesday, 5 Cheshvan

• Pogrom against Alexandria's Jews and their expulsion from the city by the Christian rabble incited by Bishop Carilius, 413 CE
• Jews massacred in Beit Shean by Greeks, 333 BCE
• 200 Jews massacred in Germany, 1298
• Pope Gregory X condemns the libel of Jews for ritual murder, 1272. Since Jews could not bear witness against Christians, he refused to accept testimony by a Christian against a Jew unless it was confirmed by another Jew.
• In Munich, a blood libel resulted in the death of most of the Jewish inhabitants, 1285. The 180 survivors were burned alive in the shul.
• Jews of Landau, Germany, ordered to wear yellow badge, 1468
• Death of Rabbi Zvi Hersh Kalisher of Germany, an early developer of a nationalistic religious philosophy, which he expounded in his "Shaalu Shalom Yerushalayim", 1874. He believed that the return to Zion should be brought about by acts, not by waiting for the Moshiach.
• Hebrew became one of the official languages used in British Mandate courts, 1920

Thursday, 6 Cheshvan

• By orders of King John, Jews of England imprisoned until they paid the enormous sum of 66,000 marks as a tax, 1210. Abraham of Bristol, who refused to pay his "share" (10,000 silver marks) had a tooth pulled every day until he agreed to pay. He lost seven teeth before he was able to raise the funds
• King of Sicily forbids decorating the outside of shuls, 1366
• Birth of R Yisrael Salanter (1809-1883)
• 100 Jews of Florence, Italy deported to extermination camps, 1943. The Cardinal Patriarch of Venice lodged a complaint on this day with the German Consul General that the Italian authorities had failed to arrest all Jews in their drive to segregate non-Aryans. He asked for all Jews to be placed behind ghetto bars to assure their extermination once and for all.
• First census in State of Israel counts 712,000 Jews and 69,000 Arab residents, 1948

Friday, 7 Cheshvan

• The date of the Chanukas Habayis of the first Bais Hamikdash in Yerushalayim by King Shlomo, 833 BCE.
• Although in January, 1482, Pope Sixtus IV had denounced the Inquisition as cruel, in 1483 he gave into Ferdinands pressure and extended the authority of the Inquisition to Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia. This consolidated the Inquisition into one central body under Torquemada.
• First settlers to Petach Tikva, 1878.
• 10,000 Jews of Kovno ghetto taken for execution, 1941
• Jewish children under the age of 12 were taken from the Shavl, Lithuania and executed, 1943.

Shabbos, 8 Cheshvan

• The Treaty of Westphalia was signed, ending the Thirty Years War and granting victory for the Protestants, 1648. This treaty causing major land changes in Europe, for the first time bringing large numbers of Jews into France with the annexing of Alsace and Lorraine. The treaty and the peace which it brought to Europe is often viewed by historians as the beginning of the modern era.
• Congregation Bracha VShalom of Surinam was dedicated, 1685. It was one of the oldest congregations in America.
• Shul of Rav Yehuda Hachasid burns down with its 40 sifrei Torah, 1720. The shul was repaired and used until 1947 when the Jordanian's destroyed it again. Today we know its sight and remains as the Hurva.
• Benito Mussolini becomes Premier of Italy, 1922. Though initially pro-Zionist and on good terms with the Jewish population, he is later prodded by Hitler to adopt anti-Semitic policies.
• Episcopal Church cleared Jews of the charge of deicide, 1964

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