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. Rav Beinush Finkel shared that on the day that Rav Noach left for Mir, Rav Aharon was absent from the yeshivah. Mr. Wolfson had just turned 25 when he approached Rav Aharon with a bold plan to petition Secretary of State John Foster Dulles via important US Senators, to recommend that Chinuch Atzmai be a recipient of counterpart funds that were being distributed by the US Government at the time. Over the years, I had many discussions with Rav Joseph Ber Soloveitchik. Rav Dovid Cohen related to us a postscript to the story. On March 12, 1943, the sale was completed. He was exhausted, and told his Rebbetzin that he wanted to rest a while before leaving. Among his students were his brilliant son Rav Avrohom Dov Ber Kahana- Shapiro (the Dvar Avraham), Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rav Yecheskel Sarna, Rav Avrohom Yaffen, Rav Isser Yehudah Unterman, and Rav Yehuda Levenberg (later rosh yeshivah of New Haven). Rabbi Waxman described his efforts to convince Rav Aharon to establish a yeshivah in the resort town. College education was seen as a necessity, even among the small American yeshivah community of the 1940s. He acquiesced and blessed him to become a talmid chacham. That made it official. There was no longer any doubt that one of the youngest students in Slabodka was also one of its greatest, for there was nothing more complimentary in yeshivah circles than being the recipient of a full-frontal attack by the great Rav Leizer Telzer who would regularly use barbs to buy time as his lightning-quick mind reworked his thought process. 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. He knew, however, that many had escaped to the Far East or had been arrested by the Soviets and deported to the Gulag, and he marshaled new energy to focus on saving these last remainders of Europes yeshivah world. Now, upon its invasion of Poland, the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland including Vilna, and presented Lithuania a doomed offer it couldnt refuse. I was once in my office when my secretary buzzed me, stating that there was a rabbi calling. By the end of the month Warsaw capitulated, and Poland was divided between the two aggressors. But I persuaded him and persevered, visiting him five times until he was convinced.. In his landmark address, Morgenthau publicly expressed his admiration for Rav Aharons heroics alongside those of Rav Avraham Kalmanowitz and Irving Bunim. Rav Aharon contacted Irving Bunim and made plans to petition government officials in Washington to prevent this. He wasnt able to make it and Menashe Rabinowitz (who would later lead the Yamim Noraim davening at Beth Medrash Govoha) filled in for him at the event. When her wealthy husband passed away in 1906, she vowed to donate her fortune to charity. When the Ridbaz left Slutzk in 1903, the townspeople pressured Rav Isser Zalman to succeed him, and serve in the double capacity of communal rabbi and rosh yeshivah. Fifty years later, almost to the day, at Mr. Wolfsons levayah, the rosh yeshivah Rav Malkiel Kotler, declared, The relationship between my grandfather and Reb Zev was that of a father to his son. The house of the rabbi shone with the splendor of(his son) the gaon. But Rav Aharon trusted the young activist who regularly drove him around and helped obtain appointments with donors. A few minutes later, they were offically welcomed into the yeshivah. To the postwar generation, the practice of Torah lishmah was relegated to history books and serial novels in the Yiddish dailies. When Rav Aharon got on the line, the caller respectfully referred to him as Kletzker rosh yeshivah. Rav Mottel exclaimed, Kletzker rosh yeshivah? As a newly bereft orphan, young Aharon Kotler was sent to study in the yeshivah in Krinik, under the tutelage of Rav Zalman Sender Kahana- Shapiro. The initial Sephardic immigrants to America in the 1700s built beautiful synagogues, he told Bunim. Rav Boruch Ber wouldnt hear of it. Ads in the Poltava based Hamodia wished mazel tov to Rav Aharon and Chana Perel Meltzer upon their marriage. Due to fundraising concerns, yeshivos generally refrained from overt association of this sort. Rav Aharon was proud of his wifes comprehensive knowledge of Tanach and would often pose an intricate question to her, smiling when she provided not just one, but two satisfactory answers. Shortly thereafter, he introduced himself to Rav Aharon. Kletzk was forced to leave Yanova and split up to evade detection. 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. Youre speaking like an inebriated Turk! i.e., youre incomprehensible. Uplifting and filled with achrayus. He explained that he used to be a butcher in Minsk, and he took a kopek from every ruble he made and put it aside to support Torah learning. -Rav Shaul Kagan. After another deadlocked meeting, a frustrated Rav Hutner told his driver that many of these conferences were not the best use of his time, with endless discussion and little accomplished. Instead, he wanted to ensure that the shul was built away from the towns hotels, because he believed that a visible Jewish presence would diminish their value. Irving Bunim pointed to that influx of 390,000 pounds as a turning point for Chinuch Atzmai, which resulted in the establishment of 25 new schools. He took strong stances on many contemporary issues in both the US and Israel, and elicited anger from supporters with his vocal protests against Israels draft law for women as well as the ensuing proposal of Sherut Leumi. [Yet] Government policy prohibited the payment of ransom to the enemy. Still, Rav Isser Zalman told me, He didnt say a word, or ever let on anything to that effect, and set out to make sure things went smoothly. Thus was the greatness of Rav Moshe Mordechai.. Examinees would know the test went well if they were invited into his home for tea and cookies afterward. When the Frank family heard that Rav Archik was the leading candidate for rosh yeshivah, they vehemently protested. In Poland, when there were many yeshivos, people would say, if you would like an approach full of life (lebedeigkeit) then go to Kletzk. Who are you to speak in the presence of gedolei hador? Rav Chaim Ozer retorted, Der yungerman darf men tzu heren vail der nexter dor vet zein oif zein pleitzis we must pay attention to what this young man has to say, because the next generation will rest on his shoulders!, This point is further reinforced by a story shared by Rav Aharon Lopiansky. Reb Aharon founded a yeshivah in Lakewood, New Jersey. 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. The first months of Rav Aharons stay in Slabodka featured successive visits from great rabbinical leaders. He nurtured talmidim who themselves built numerous Torah institutions over the ensuing decades. Rav Aharon chose Kletzk partly as a result of its proximity to the new border, but there was a historical impetus as well. Named Chachmei Tzarfat after the great Rishonim who had once resided there, the yeshivah started with a group of DPs in Aix-Les-Baines. 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. [8], Upon the death of his father-in-law, he inherited his father-in-law's position of rosh yeshiva of Etz Chaim Yeshiva of Jerusalem. Until the last day of his life, Reb Zev lived with a shlichus a mission that he learnt and felt from Rav Aharon.. 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.. His greatest initial success was to unify the various factions of American Orthodoxy around the mission of rescuing the Eastern European Torah world. The studentslistened attentively until the flow was interrupted by a quiet but assertive voice. A few days later he cabled his family to leave Kletzk immediately together with the entire yeshivah body and administration and head toward Vilna. There were a few precocious children in the shul there, and he paid for train tickets for two of them to go to Slabodka. Legend has it, as believed by many in the "yeshivishe" world, that the curse began with Joe Kennedy. [He presented] complicated mathematical problems that would be hard for a licensed engineer to solve, and the Sislovitzer resolved them in no time. That historic talk articulated Rav Aharons ideology, mission, and contagious energy. Many of the more than 100 shuls in Minsk belonged to the various workers guilds common to urban life at the turn of the century. 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. We live in an age when the amenities of Torah life, institutions and community are taken for granted. Little did anyone realize that the sun was beginning to rise onceagain, and few would play a larger role in lighting upthe dark sky than youngAharon. He chaired the Rabbinical administration board of Torah Umesorah, and was on the presidium of the Agudas HaRabbonim of the U.S. and Canada. Rav Aharon himself was personally involved in commissioning the sefer Torah; he hired a resident of Kletzk, a reliable sofer named Yechezkel Peikuss, to write the Sefer Torah, which was completed in time for the Chofetz Chaims second yahrtzeit in 1935. 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. 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. Rav Aharon understood that any attempts to rescue the yeshivah students and Torah scholars in Nazi-occupied Lithuania was now an exercise in futility. This duo was assisted by a local farmer-turned-real estate-agent named Menashe Rabinowitz, and the search commenced for a building to host the yeshivah. That was Rav Aharon, says Rav Kalman. Hey look, a Gemara, one of the rabbis said to his counterpart. Just weeks after Rav Aharons arrival in Americaon Erev Pesach of 1941, the Nazis invaded Soviet-occupied Lithuania andbrought an end to the golden age of Torah study in Eastern Europe. Rav Shaul Kagan, founder of the Pittsburgh Kollel, wrote that an older Kletzk student described how Rav Aharon once insisted on delivering the daily shiur despite a high fever. When he returned and found him gone, he hastened to Mir with the intention of bringing back his treasured student. In a letter penned in Toledo, Ohio, he addresses a query on the subject of masneh al mah shekasuv baTorah, and apologizes because of the great exertion and due to the weakness of my health, as I caught a cold and cant elaborate., He continued: In Columbus, Ohio $130 dollars was collected; Yesterday evening, we came to Toledo, the rav here Rabbi Nechemia Katz (brother-in-law of Rav Moshe Feinstein) studied at our yeshivah in Slutzk, and of course he is trying to do everything possible He also wrote that he considered traveling to Cleveland for the coming Shabbos, but received word that representatives of the Slabodka yeshivah had preceded him. He saw in the case of the Gaon a genuine Divine revelation. The mutual respect between the two was immeasurable. Rav Aharon attended Moetzes meetings in Israel too, where his opinion was sought on weighty matters involving Israeli elections and politics, leading Rav Leizer Silver to joke at an Agudah Convention that world Jewry had a new kind of leader, a transatlantic rosh yeshivah.. 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. Rav Aharon suggested three candidates to lead the institution Rav Yitzchok Hutner, who was then employed in a non-leadership position in Chaim Berlin; Rav Yechezkel Burstyn, rosh yeshivah of Ohr Yisroel in Slabodka and author of Divrei Yechezkel; and his own brother-in-law Rav Yitzchak Meir Patchiner (Ben-Menachem), then a talmid in Slabodka-Chevron. Prior to his passing, Reb Shraga Feivel Frank requested of his wife to ensure that their four daughters all married young men who were fully engaged in a life of Torah. Rabbi Kotler played a crucial role in the shaping of the aredi world view in the twentieth century. Rav Aharon had an acute awareness of the Soviets and their methods. Yankele Ochsenkrug, the proprietor said. After the war, he walked to Bratislava with an older cousin. On October 8, Rav Aharon traveled to Vilna to consult with Rav Chaim Ozer and other roshei yeshivah. One of the Torah giants of his time, Rav Zalman Sender was a great-grandson of Rav Chaim Volozhiner through his daughter Relkehs second marriage. They even locked the doors and incapacitated his waiting automobile to try and prevent his departure. The activities of the Vaad did not cease with the end of the war, because there were still Jews in Europe who desperately needed help. There will never be another like her.. He and his shtender and the Gemara were so attached to one another, that aside from the fact that by his bar mitzvah he was already an exceptional illui, he was less noticeable than the other two, because he and the Gemara were fused together as one, from one skin. They were then instructed to wait for the Alter to return from Kelm where he had spent Yom Tov with his family. Rav Aharon was the Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai of his time, tasked with picking up the pieces after the staggering destruction of the Holocaust. Another was in New York, and they were his students in the art of activism, initiative, responsibility, and leadership. Last year you gave me ten dollars. It wasnt in the nature of the Sislovitzer to allow his true brilliance to be heard. Rav Asher Bergman writes that when a young illui (later to become a renowned rosh yeshivah) arrived in Kletzk, Rav Shach encouraged him to stop smoking, not out of health concerns which they werent aware of at the time but rather to ensure that should he stray from the path, at least he wouldnt smoke on Shabbos.). He was murdered in the Yanova Ghetto along with his community. As time went on, however, and the security situation in Poland necessitated emigration, Rav Aharon often penned letters requesting certificates to Palestine on behalf of talmidim who requested his assistance. The rest,as they say, is history. Menucha Frank instead married Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein. The Yeshiva began very humbly; Rabbi Ezra Novick, one of the earliest students, reports that when he joined the Yeshiva, there were only three students. You will live for many years in Eretz Yisrael; HaKadosh Baruch Hu will yet help you, and in Eretz Yisrael you will come up with great chiddushei Torah., After hearing such things from the Chofetz Chaim, Rav Isser Zalman declared, I wouldnt stay here for all the money in the world! Arke Sislovitzer is Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Mordechai told him. At an emergency fundraising meeting, he put it in approximately these words: I dont want you to misunderstand me; I dont want to mislead you. (His son Rav Shneur had already departed for Palestine using a certificate received from his grandfather Rav Isser Zalman.). The man looked up and asked, Mah hashaah what time is it?. This noble endeavor created a framework for laborers and merchants to benefit from a Torah environment, replete with batei medrash and shiurim in every locale. This made Beth Medrash Govoha a bridge of sorts, where the yeshivah tradition of Eastern Europe was handed over to a new generation of leaders and Torah scholars. At first, he was reluctant, claiming that it was a resort where people came for pleasure and vanity, and not fit for a spiritual center. Rav Aharon believed that the appropriate form of activism was for the American Jewish community to aim its frustration directly at elected officials, and that success was more likely through quiet diplomacy conducted behind closed doors. He bent forward and strained his neck to look backward. True, there remain new fields to conquer, new struggles to overcome. In 1903 he was offered the rabbinate of the larger town of Krinik, which he accepted on condition that he could open a yeshivah there as well. The rosh yeshivah! Rav Aharon was once in the midst of delivering a shiur in Kletzk during the snowy winter when the chimney became clogged. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. 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. 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 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. Rav Simcha Wasserman, a student of Rav Aharon in Kletzk, had arrived in the US and during this period assisted his rosh yeshivah with rescue activities. 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? Sensing the danger which was to confront the yeshivos under a potential Soviet dominion, he called upon all of the yeshivos to flee posthaste to Vilna. There were shuls for carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, milliners, water carriers, kehillah officials, and even rag-makers. With his arrival in Slabodka, he enjoyed a . In 1933 he traveled to England and Ireland, but it became apparent that the yeshivah was on the brink of financial collapse. Prior to Pesach of 1905, Rav Aharon journeyed to Minsk and joined a kibbutz of older talmidim at the Katzovisheh (Butchers) Shul. It is a great honor to stand at the helm of a packed beis medrash and teach Torah, that is RAM lofty and elevated. In recognition of his status, as well as the fact that he was an orphan, Rav Aharon was provided by the Katzovisheh Shul with a significantly larger stipend than others. And he (Zev) has a tremendous part in this accomplishment (to strengthen Chinuch Atzmai), through lobbying efforts and other means. Rav Mordechai Elefant is to his left. His son, current Shaar HaTorah rosh yeshivah Rav Kalman Epstein, who was then a young boy, accompanied his father. At one meeting, Rav Ruderman introduced Rav Aharon as one of the geniuses of our times, a rosh yeshivah for outstanding pupils. The man leaned toward Rav Ruderman and requested to speak with him privately. Rav Aharon took an active and eventually leading role. This theme was sustained by Rav Moshe Shapiro, who extolled Mr. Wolfson as the fulfillment of Rav Aharons tireless bidding: Rav Aharon passed away 50 years ago, but his precognition endowed him with the faith that Reb Zev would bring blessing to the Jewish People. August 23, 1939 was one of the most significant dates in the history of the 20th century. The story is told that the Beis HaLevi asked the two youngsters which was a bigger lamdan. Contents Address of Rav Aharon Kotler Chinuch Atzmai Dinner 1956 50th yartzheit of harav aharon kotler zt l lakewood Before the days of commercial airplane travel, urban dwellers looking to escape the cold winters in New York City would travel to Lakewood, where the temperatures were said to be, on average, more than ten degrees warmer. For the remainder of the war, Rav Aharon along with Rav Avraham Kalmanowitz and his close confidante Irving Bunim would lobby diplomats, legislators and anyone who would listen in the corridors of power in Washington to assist in various rescue schemes. 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. The following day the two were called in to the rosh yeshivah, Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, for their entrance exam. And of course we have the regular expenses of feeding the yeshivah. Although right now I really cant host you or help you fundraise, I also cant just absolve myself without doing anything. My Blog rav aharon kotler's sister Thank you. He answered that Rav Aharons personal magnetism was what drew him in, but even more so, he was impressed that Rav Aharon spoke with such enthusiasm and persuasiveness while maintaining his integrity, something he rarely encountered among other rabbis who solicited him. He has pored over historical accounts of life in Shanghai during the war to appreciate the deprivation and mesirus nefesh his mother experienced and which is so much a part of her persona.

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