Cortesy of Congregation Anshe Emes, Los Angeles

The update of Jewish History of this week

YAHRTZEITS

Sunday, 23 Adar

• Rav Chaim Cheikel (Chaikel) of Amdur (Indura) (1787). Born to Rav Shmuel in Karlin, he was a disciple of the Vilna Gaon, and later became a student of Rav Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mazerich. Rav Chaim became one of the first Chassidic Admorim in 1772-73. He authotred Chaim Vochesed. Amdur is about 25 miles south of Grodno (Hrodno). Amdur and Grodno are located in the northwest corner of what is now the independent country of Belarus, close to the Lithuanian and Polish borders. During the Cossack revolt of 1648 against Polish landowners and gentry, over 100,000 Jews, mostly in Ukraine and southern Belarus, were murdered. However, the marauders did not advance north to the Grodno region. Jews comprised 80% of the population in Grodno at that time. Rav Chaims daughter married Moshe, the brother of Aharon, founder of Karlin Hassidism. Rav Chaim was succeeded by his son, Rav Shmuel of Amdur.
• Rav Yitzchak Meir Alter of Ger (Chidushei HaRim) (1799-1866). The founder of Gerer dynasty, grandfather of Sfas Emes, Reb Yitzchak Meir was able to trace his lineage back to Rav Meir ben Baruch (the Maharam) of Rottenberg (1215-1293). His mother, Chaya Sarah, was orphaned early in life and was raised by her relative, the Kozhnitzer Maggid. The Maggid had a great influence on Yitzchak Meir during the latters early years. As he grew, he became a disciples of Rebbi Simcha Bunem of Pryschicha and then R' Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. At the insistence of the Chassidim, the Rim became leader after the death of the Kotzker. At the first Chassi dic gathering over which he presided he declared, "Reb Simchah Bunem led with love, and R' Menachem Mendel with fear. I will lead with Torah!" He had 13 children and outlived them all , a tremendous personal tragedy. Yet, he accepted it all with love.
• Rav Yitzchak Yaakov Rabinowitz of Biala (Divrei Bina) (1905), youngest son of Rebbe Nathan Dovid, son-in-law of Rebbe Yehoshua of Ostrovoh (the Toldos Adam), and great-grandson of Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowitz, the Yid Hakadosh of Peshischa.
• Rav Raphael Shapiro, the Toras Raphael, rosh yeshivas Volozhin (1837-1921). After the Volozhin Yeshiva was closed down in 1892 by order of the Russian government, he reopened it, on a smaller scale in 1899. He was also a son-in-law of the Netziv and the father-In-Law of Rav Chaim Soloveichik of Brisk
• Rav Michel Dovid Rozovsky (1869-1935). Born in Svarjen, near Stoibetz, he learned in Mir and Volozhin. After his marriage, he was appointed Rav in Grodna, in which capacity he remained for 40 years. He was the father of three sons: Rav Yehoshua Heschel, who served as Rav in Grodna, until he was murdered by the Nazis; Rav Yosef, who served as Rosh Yeshiva of Ohr Yisrael in Petach Tikva; and Rav Shmuel, who would become Rosh Yeshiva in Ponevezh in Bnai Brak.
• Rav Shlomo Zafrani (1970), born in Aram Soba (Aleppo). He became a close disciple of Rabbi Ezra Sha'in. Together with Rav Moshe Tawil, he founded the Degel HaTorah yeshiva. His community supported him as well as the yeshivah. At the age of 68, he moved to Eretz Yisrael and settled in Tel-Aviv. He lived there for nine years, until his death.
• Rav Yehuda Moshe Danziger (Danzcyger), Alexandria Rebbe of Bnai Brak (Emunas Moshe) (1973)
• Rav Yisrael Grossman (1922-2007). Born in the old city of Yerushalayim, Reb Yisrael studied at the yeshiva of Rav Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky, where he learned meseches Kiddushin 30 times. He later learned at Yeshivas Kaminetz. After Rav Baruch Shimon Schneerson became Rosh Yeshiva in Tchebin, Reb Yisrael replaced him as Rosh Yeshiva in Yeshivas Chabad, where he remained for 30 years. He also served as a dayan for the beis din of Agudas Yisrael for over 40 years and later opened a beis din for monetary laws with Rav Betzalel Zolti and helped found Mifal Hashas. He was also very involved with Chinuch Atzmai.

Monday, 24 Adar

• Rav Yitzchak Eizik Margulies of Prague (1525).
• Rav Chaim Algazi of Kushta, author of Nesivos Hamishpot. Student of Rav Shlomo Algazi Rabbi of Rhodes.
• Rav Eliyahu HaKohen Ha'Itamari of Izmir, author of Shevet Mussar (according to some - 22 Adar) (c1650-1729). He was the son of Rav Shlomoh HaKohen the Itamari, whose lineage apparently dates back to Itamar, the son of Aharon HaKohen. In his book, Ve'lo Od Ela, Rav Eliyahu describes the earthquake that shook Izmir, on a Shabbos in 1688, and the many miracles that occurred to the Jews of the city. All of the synagogues and batei medrash in the city remained intact, while all of the Moslem mosques collapsed. An hour after the earthquake, a huge fire burst forth and spread throughout the city, destroying what remained of it. However, the fire ceased at the Jewish Quarter, and did not penetrate it. His other works included Me'il Tzeddakah on the importance of giving tzeddakah, Medrash Talpiyot, Yado BaKol, Medrash Eliyahu, Aggadas Eliyahu, a two-volume commentary on the aggados of the Talmud Yerushalmi, Chut shel Chessed on the Chumash, Dana Peshara, on Shir HaShirim, Rus and Esther, almost 40 sefarim in all.
• Rav Betzalel Yair Danziger of Lodz (1761).
• Rav Binyamin Diskin of Horodna and Vilna (1844)
• Rav Yitzchak Meyer of Alesk (1829-1904). Born in Belz to Rav Chanoch Henach of Alesk, author of Lev Sameyach, and Rebbetzen Freide, daughter of the Sar Shalom of Belz. After learning with his maternal grandfather, he became a chasid of Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin, and later of his son, Rav Dovid Moshe of Chortkov. With his fathers petira in 1884, Rav Yitzchak became Rav in Alesk. He had one daughter, and his son-in-law succeeded him.
• Rav Shlom Elyashiv, author of Leshem Shevo Veachlama (1927)
• Rav Rav Yitzchak of Stutchin (1940)
• Rav Chaim Osher of Radoshitz (1941)
• Rav Yehoshua Menachem Ehrenberg (1904-1976). Born in Kemesce, Hungary. In 1921, he moved to Tarnow to learn in the yeshiva of Rav Meir Arik. Living in Cracow, Rav Ehrenberg published his first sefer, Rashei Besamim on the Rokeach, in 1937. During WWII, he was interned in the Cracow ghetto. He was included in the "Kastner train," escaping to Switzerland. In 1945, he moved to Yerushalayim. In November of 1947, he heeded to request of Rav Herzog to be the Chief Rabbi of the internment camp on Cyprus; he stayed until the camp was entirely dismantled and came back to Eretz Yisrael on the last ship. He was appointed Av Beis Din in Yaffo. When Yaffo was joined to Tel Aviv, he served as a specialist on Gittin, and was widely regarded as the foremost posek in this area. He wrote the sefer Teshuvos Dvar Yehoshua.
• Rav Gad (Godel) Eisner (1985), taught at the Talmud Torah of Rav Gershon Eliyahu Liz in Lodz before WWII, and for many years as maggid shiur and Mashgiach ruchani at Yeshivas Chidushei haRim in tel Aviv

Tuesday, 25 Adar

• Rav Gershon Kitover, brother-in-law of the Baal Shem Tov (1696-1761). His father, Efrayim, was a Rav and Av Beis Din in one of the four batei din in Brody, Poland. In 1747, he moved to Eretz Yisrael (becoming the first of the talmidim of the Besht to do so), living first in Chevron and then in Yerushalayaim.
• Rav Menachem Mendel Hager (1885-1941). Rebbe of Vizhnitz for fourteen years. He published a monthly journal "Degel HaTorah."
• Rav Yaakov Yisrael Fischer (1925-2003), head of the Eidah HaHareidis Rabbinical Court in Yerushalayim. Rav Fischer was born in Yerushalayim on the 21st of Tamuz, the day that Yisrael Yaakov Dehaan was killed in what many said was the first political assassination in modern Israeli history. Dehaan changed his lifestyle and became a chareidi Jew, and Rav Aharon Fischer named his newborn son Yaakov Yisrael after him. Rav Aharons father was Rav Shlomo, av beis din of Karlsburg, Hungary, and author of Neiros Shlomo and Korbanei lachmi. Rav Yaakov Yisrael learned at Etz Chaim under Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, who became his chavrusa. In 1961, he was appointed moreh horaah in the Eidah Hachareidis, and in 1975 he joined its beis din. In 1963, he was appointed Rav of the Zichron Moshe shul, a position he kept for 40 years.
• Rebbetzin Zahava Braunstein (2005)

Wednesday, 26 Adar

• Sarah Schenirer, mother of the Bais Yaakov movement (1935)
• Rav Eliezer Lippa, the son of Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk (1813).
• Rav Avraham Chaim Brim of Yerushalayim (2002)

Thursday, 27 Adar

• Tzedkiah, last king of Yehuda, died in captivity, in Bavel (561 BCE).
• Rav Yosef Shaul ben Aryeh Leibush HaLevi Nathanson (1810-1875). Born in Brezhan, he was married at the age of 16 to Rebbetzen Sara Eidel, daughter of Rav Yitzchak Aharon Intinge of Lvov and grand-daughter of Rav Mordechai Zev Orenstein, the Rav of Lvov. Her uncle was Rav Yaakov Orenstein, the Yeshuos Yaakov. Reb Yosef Shaul became very close to his brother-in-law, Rav Mordechai Zev Intinge, and together they authored several sefarim including Meforshei Hayam and Magen Giborim on Tur and Shulchan Aruch, Meiras Eynayim on hilchos bedikas hareiah, and Ner Maaravi on the Yerushalmi. Many years before he became Rav, he founded a yeshiva in Lvov whose purpose was to train dayanim and rabbanim. In 1856, he was appointed Rav in Lvov, a position he held for almost 20 years. Sadly, his Rebbetzen was niftar in 1857. He married one year later but was never zocheh to have children with either wife. He founded a communal kitchen, and he himself would walk around town collecting tzedak a from the city gevirim. For this tzedaka, he wanted to take an active role. He is most famous for his sefer Sheilos uteshuvos Hashoel Umaishiv, but he authored many other sefarim, including Divrei Shaul on the Hagadadah, Divrei Shaul Yosef Daas, Yodos Nedarim, Divrei Shaul al Hatorah, and Divrei Shaul al Aggados haShas. He also authored a kuntres entitled Bitul Modaa, in which he argued that machine-made matzos are more mehudar than hand matzos.
• Rav Yeshayah Schorr (1879). His primary teacher was Rav Mordechai of Kremnitz, the son of the Maggid of Zlotchov. Rav Schorr's last rabbinical post, and the one for which he is best remembered, was in Iasi (on the present-day border between Rumania and Moldova). His best know sefer is Klil Tiferes on chumash.
• Rav Moshe Meir Rosenstein of Berditchev (1821-1902). A chassid of the Rizhuner Rebbe in his youth, Rav Moshe Meir moved to Eretz Yisral and settled in Tzefas in 1853, living there for several decades. At the end of his life, he settled in Teveria. His insights have been published recently in a sefer called Avodas HaLeviim.
• Rav Yitzchak Abuhab (Aboab), Kabbalist, Av Beis Din in Amsterdam (1605-1693). Born in in Castro Daire, Portugal, his family escaped the Inquisition in Portugal and settled in Amsterdam. His father, David, died when Yitzchak was only seven. In 1626, at the age of 21, he was nominated Chacham. In 1642, he migrated to Brazil. He returned to Amsterdam three years later after the war between the Portugese and Dutch. . He was a member of the court that excommunicated Espinoza. Ten years later (1666) he defended Shabtai Tzvi. Descendent of Rav Yitzchak Abuhab of Toledo, author of Menorah HaMaor, c1320). He was also a grandson of Rav Yitzchak Abuhab of Castille, among whose leading talmidim were Rav Shmuel Balansi (Valenci) and Rav Avraham Zacuto (Sacut), author of Sefer Yohassin. In 1492, he left Spain along with Rav Zacuto to Lisbon and died several months later.
• Rav Shlomo Elyashiv (1841-1925). He was a great Kabbalist whose vast knowledge of all aspects of Torah and exceptional ability to clarify complicated concepts resulted in a few several Kabbalistic works, including Drushei Olam HaTohu ("Dayah") and Hakdamos VShaarim ("HaKadosh"). More recently, the more philosophical and less Kabbalistically technical sections of his works were assembled into a single book called Leshem Shevo Ve'achlama.
• Rav Moshe Neuschloss, av beis din of New Square. New Square is the anglicized form of Skvira, a village in Ukraine, where the Skver Hasidim dynasty of Chasidism had its roots. The community began in 1954, when twenty Skver families moved from Williamsburg to a 130 acre farm north of Spring Valley, under the leadership of their Rebbe Rav Yakov Yosef Twersky. In 1961 New Square became the first village in New York state to be governed by a religious group. Over the years annexations have increased its size. Its population increased 78% between 1990 and 2000.
• Rav Chaim Sinuani (1898-1979). Born in Sinuan, Yemen, to Chacham Yichya, of the eminent Bida family. As a youth, he left home for Jabal, to study in the yeshiva of Rav Shlomo ben Yosef Tabib and Rav Dovid Yaish Chadad. Both of the roshei yeshiva passed away in 1919. In 1921, at the age of only 23, Rav Chaim became Rav and Av Beis Din of Sinuan. He and his family participated in Operation Magic Carpet in 1949. He is buried in Yehud.
• Rav Yisrael Bergstein, born in the Lithuanian city of Suvalk, studied in Grodno under Rav Shimon Shkop and Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz from age 11, then at age 14, under Rav Avraham Grodzinsky and the Alter of Slabodka at Chevron. Taught at Chafetz Chaim in Baltimore and founded a yeshiva in White Plains (1912-1998).

Friday, 28 Adar

• Rav Shmuel Halevi Klein (Kellin) of Boskowitz, author of Machtzis Hashekel, a super-commentary on the Magen Avraham on the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim (1738-1827)
• Rav Mordechai Kastelanitz of Lecovitz, the father of the Slonim Chassidic dynasty, immigrated to Chevron in 1844 (1837-1916).
• Rav Moshe Chevroni, rosh yeshiva of Chevron (1986)
• Rav Yechiel Michel Gutfarb, gabbai tzedaka of Yerushalayim (2002)

Shabbos, 29 Adar

• Rabbeinu Yitzchak ben Rabbeinu Asher, and grandson of the Riva, was murdered with numerouis other Jews because of a blood libel (1196).
• Rav Shlomo HaCohen Rabinowitz of Radomsk, first Rebbe of the Radomsk dynasty, he first took the position of Rav of Radomsk in 1842. He was the author of Tiferes Shlomo on Chumash and the moadim (1801 or 1803-1866)
• Rav Chaim Shmuel Birnbaum, son-in-law of Rav Akiva Eiger and author of Maseh Choshev (1887).
• Rav Chaim Welfried of Lodz (1942).
• Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky (1891-1986). Born on the 21 Adar, in Dolhinov, he left for Minsk at the age of 11. Among his friends there were the future Rav Reuven Grozovsky, and the young Aaron Kotler. Shortly after Pesach in 1905, Reb Yaakov and Reb Aaron traveled to Slobodka to learn under the supervision of the Alter of Slobodka. Reb Yaakov also learned in Slutzk. During World War I he took refuge in Lomza in the yeshiva of Reb Yechiel Michel Gordon. On 22 Sivan, 1919, he married the Rebbetzin Ita Ettel. On 11th Av 1937, he left for America. In 1945, he accepted the request of Reb Shraga Feivel Mendelovitz that he take up the position of rosh yeshiva in Mesivta Torah Vodaas, a position he kept for the rest of his life. His chidushim were printed in his seforim Emes LeYaakov, on Torah and on Shas. As he requested, he was buried in Brooklyn, since he pointed out that most of his family live in America and would not always be able to travel to his kever in Eretz Yisrael. From th is, his last request we learn yet another chapter of his feelings for others.
• Dr. Joseph Kaminetsky (1911-1999). Born in Brooklyn, he attended Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, and later Talmudical Academy High School on East Broadway. After high school, he became a member of the very first class of Yeshiva College, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1932. He later earned his doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University. When he began his tenure at Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, in 1946, he set as his goal that every town and city with a Jewish population of at least 5,000 have a Jewish day school. In those days, there was only a handful of yeshivos and day schools; there are now 600 such schools with 170,000 students all over the United States. In 1980, he retired and moved to Yerushalayim, to devote himself to full-time learning.

JEWISH HISTORY

Sunday, 23 Adar

• Second Beis HaMikdash was dedicated, 516 BCE
• Massacre of the Jews of Estella, Spain, 1328.
• Jews were excluded from public office and dignities in the Roman Empire, 1418.
• The republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation of Czech areas and the separation of Slovakia, 1939
• The Knesset approves the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, by a vote of 95 for, 18 against, 1979.

Monday, 24 Adar

• Jews of Wurtzburg were massacred by the Crusaders, 1147.
• Jews of Mayence, Germany, were massacred, 1283.
• The Pope issued a bill banning all social intercourse between Christians and Jews. 1451.
• Jews of Lithuania were granted permission to return to the country after a brief exile of 8 years, 1503.
• Lorenzo Bertran subjected to an auto-da-fe in Seville, 1799. He was the last person to be punished for Judaizing in Spain.
• Czar Alexander of Russia declared the infamous Blood Libel to be false, 1817. (Unfortunately, nearly 100 years later, the blood libel against Mendel Beilis in Kiev was officially sanctioned.)
• Jews of White Russia were forbidden to wear distinctive clothes which would set them apart from the rest of the population, 1856.
• First organized Arab assault on a Jewish settlement (Petach Tikva), 1886.
• Jews of Gluchor massacred by Ukrainian mob, 1918.
• German troops marched into Prague, 1939.
• Germany occupied Hungary, 1944

Tuesday, 25 Adar

• King of France orders the detention for ransom of all Jews in Paris attending shul on Shabbos, 1181.
• Jews of Strasbourg burned in the Jewish cemetery during the Black Plague, 1349.
• Jews of Carinthia, Austria, were expelled, 1496 (and not readmitted until 1848).
• U.S. President Harrison was petitioned in 1891 to aid in the reestablishment of Palestine as a sovereign Jewish state, 1891. The petition was signed, by Cyrus McCormick, J. P. Morgan, William McKinley, John D. Rockefeller, Russel Sage, and Cardinal Gibbons, among others. It was a spontaneous expression of American sympathy for Zionism, totally independent of Jewish Zionist activities. The petition was motivated by Biblical influences and by intense indignation aroused by Russian pogroms.
• The discovery of the mutilated body of Andrei Yishinsky, near Kiev, Russia, led to the infamous trial of Mendel Beilis on ritual-murder charges, 1911.
• Adolf Hitler was granted dictatorial powers by the German Reichstag, 1933.

Wednesday, 26 Adar

• The Pope issued a bill ordering the burning of the Shas, 1244.
• The Jewish community of Newport, R.I. bought land for a burial ground, 1677.
• The Nazis bar Jewish physicians from treating Aryans and vice-versa, 1940.
• Operation Nachshon, Haganah's first large-scale offensive began, 1948.
• Passing of Reb Eliyahu Chaim Carlebach. Rabbi Citron's father-in-law, twin brother of singer Shlomo Carlebach and person for whom Aaron Gross's son is named (1989)

Thursday, 27 Adar

• Jews were massacred by rioters in Stamford-fair, England, 1190.
• King of Austria grants favorable rights to Jews, 1255.
• Jews of Prague exiled, 1745.
• Emperor Joseph II granted Jews right of residence in Pest, Hungary, 1783.
• Jews of Prussia were granted citizenship upon their adoption of family names, 1812.
• The Portuguese Inquisition was abolished, 1821. (Having been established in 1531, it was in existence 290 years.)
• Twenty-six Jews were wounded in Salzburg, Austria, in the first serious outbreak of postwar anti-Semitism, 1951.

Friday, 28 Adar

• Antiochus V granted religious freedom and autonomy to the Jews of Eretz Yisrael, 163 BCE. The date was celebrated as a holiday marking the cancellation of decrees prohibiting Bris Mila, Limud Hatorah and Shemiras Shabbos.
• Jews of Prussia were granted rights, 1277.
• Jews of Weissensee, Germany, were massacred, 1303.
• Cairo Purim was observed annually in commemoration of the community's escape from a massacre, 1524. Sultan Ahmed Shaitan, upset with being rejected as Grand Vizier, ordered his Jewish coinager, Abraham de Castro, to print his likeness and title of Grand Vizier on coins. When De Castro fled, the Sultan ordered the Jewish community to choose between paying a massive fine or being killed. On the last day before the Sultan's edict was enforced, he was assassinated by one of his viziers.

Shabbos, 29 Adar

• Jews of Speyer massacred in Crusades, 1096.
• Emperor Charles V confirmed the privileges of Austrian Jews, 1544.
• Napolean captured Jaffa, 1799.
• The first Jewish immigrant to Israel to disembark at the Port of Eilat, 1957.
• Jews of Austria were required by law to belong to the government-established religious community in their town, 1890.
• Jews of Vienna were slaughtered in their shul and the remainder were forcibly converted, 1421.

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