| Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak | |
|---|---|
הישיבה הגדולה כנסת בית יצחק | |
 | |
| Information | |
| Type | Yeshiva |
| Religious affiliation | Orthodox Judaism |
| Established | 1897 |
| Closed | 1941 |
| Enrollment | 350-400 (before World War II) |
Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak was anOrthodox Jewishyeshiva, founded inSlabodka on the outskirts ofKaunas,Lithuania (then ruled by theRussian Empire), in 1897. The yeshiva later moved toKamyenyets, then part ofPoland, and currently inBelarus, and is therefore often referred to as theKaminetz Yeshiva or simplyKaminetz. The yeshiva was famously led by RabbiBoruch Ber Leibowitz.
Originally, Slabodka boasted the famousKnesses Yisrael yeshiva, founded by RabbiNosson Tzvi Finkel in 1882.[1]: p. 50 However, in 1897, controversy broke out in the yeshiva, as many of the students were opposed to the yeshiva strong focus onmussar (Jewish ethics), as opposed to only studyingTalmud.[1]: p. 56 The yeshiva therefore split into two, with the one against mussar going under the nameKnesses Beis Yitzchok (named for the previous rabbi ofKaunas, RabbiYitzchak Elchanan Spektor).[2] The rav of Slabodka, Rabbi Moshe Danishevsky, served asrosh yeshiva. RabbiMoshe Mordechai Epstein, the rosh yeshiva of Knesses Yisrael, served alongside Rabbi Danishevsky in the town'sbeis din (Torah court). Despite the friction between the two yeshivos at the time of their division, the cooperation between the two rosh yeshivas thawed the ice.[2] RabbiChaim Rabinowitz also served as rosh yeshiva. However, a controversy between pro- and anti-Zionists broke out in the yeshiva, and Rabbi Rabinowitz left the yeshiva. RabbiBaruch Ber Leibowitz, a student of RabbiChaim Soloveitchik and formerly a rosh yeshiva inHalusk, was appointed asrosh yeshiva.
Despite the fact that Knesses Beis Yitzchak was not a mussar yeshiva, Rabbi Baruch Ber himself was uncomfortable being labeled as an opponent to mussar. His son-in-law, RabbiReuven Grozovsky, who taught in the yeshiva, was a student of theKnesses Yisrael yeshiva in Slabodka, and Rabbi Leibowitz said that only Knesses Yisrael could've produced such a fine personality.[1]: p. 57 Both of his sons-in-law, Rabbi Grozovsky and Rabbi Moshe Bernstein, taught in the yeshiva.
When World War I broke out in 1914, the yeshiva fled Slabodka forMinsk, and when the war reached there as well, the yeshiva moved further east, settling inKremenchug in Ukraine, also underRussian Rule, in 1917;[3] Rabbi Leibowitz was with the yeshiva throughout its travels. However, war was rampant in Kremenchug also, with fighting betweenUkrainian nationalists and the Russians, as well as between theRed andWhite armies, and in the yeshiva moved again in 1921, this time toVilna, a bustling city in Lithuania with a large Jewish population, where they remained for five years. In Vilna, the action of the big city served as a disturbance, and Rabbi Leibowitz moved the yeshiva in 1926 toKaminetz, a city in theSecond Polish Republic.[4]
The yeshiva was welcomed by the Kaminetz Jewish community; the community marched out to greet them, clad in holiday attire, with an orchestra leading the way. Rabbi Leibowitz was seated on a fancy chair, upholstered in velvet, and lifted into the air. The procession then walked with the yeshiva until they reached the yeshiva's new building. A festive meal was then had.[3]
The yeshiva grew exponentially in their new home, with as many as 350-400 students (generally in their late twenties, although a few students were in their thirties),[5] with another 50 in themechina (a preparatory school for younger students), and seven men in thekollel.[4] Students flocked to the yeshiva from all over the continent, as well as fromPalestine andAmerica.[6] The growth of the yeshiva led to a lack of space in their building, and so Mr. Gershon Galin, a Kaminetz native who had emigrated to the United States, took upon himself to erect a new building, and took the first step by purchasing a piece of land and being the first one to donate towards the building fund. In 1932, the building's foundation was laid. On the eighth dayChanukah in 1937, the dedication of the new building was celebrated, in the presence of rabbis from throughout the region.[3]
In early September 1939, theGerman Army invadedKaminetz. They told the local residents that they did not plan to stay for long, as they had signed theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which stated that theSoviet Union would get the eastern half of Poland, and treated them decently. The yeshiva stayed in Kaminetz during the German occupation, and had prayed regularly during the Jewish holiday ofRosh Hashana. The Germans left the city, leaving behind only a small headquarters, at the time that the Russians were supposed to come. However, the Russians didn't come right away, and localgentile anti-Semites took advantage of the anarchy to attack Jews and loot their properties. Ironically, the Jews went to the local Nazi headquarters and requested that their soldiers return to protect them until the Soviets arrived.[5] The Russians arrived on the day beforeYom Kippur.
RabbiChaim Ozer Grodzensky, the rabbi ofVilna as well asgadol hador (leader of the generation),[7] sent a message to all of the yeshivos under Russian rule that they should escape toVilna; the Russians had taken the city from Poland and were going to give it back toLithuania (which it had previously been part of). Therefore, many yeshivos escaped and crowded into Vilna.[8] In the Kaminetz Yeshiva, many of the foreign and Polish students returned home, leaving only half of the yeshiva, approximately 160 students, in the yeshiva, and together they fled to Vilna.
In Vilna, local Jews arranged for the yeshiva to study in the Lokishok Bais Medrash[9] and families offered to take in refugees for lodging[5] The Lithuanian prime minister, who treated the Jews well, decided that having fifteen thousand refugees crowded into the capital city was unsustainable and he therefore ordered the yeshivos to disperse to the nearby towns. The Kaminetz Yeshiva settled inRasein, where the classes continued as usual. Rabbi Leibowitz died then in 1939.[10]
Despite their temporary safety, the students understood that they were in the center of a war-zone and tried all they could to leave the country, but all their attempts went in vain. About a year and half later, the Russians reassumed control of Lithuania; when they discovered that the yeshiva students in the countryside were attempting to leave for America, they made plans to send the yeshivos to Siberian labor camps, farther away from the border, as they were worried about anti-communists being so close to the front, lest they join forces with the Nazis and fight against theSoviet Union. Russian soldiers had seized Jewish homes, and the hosts warned the yeshiva students of their plan of relocation. Many went into hiding, while many went along with the plan;[9] the ones who stayed behind in Lithuania ended up getting killed by the Nazis three days later.[5] The students that were deported did not end up going to Siberia, rather to the remoteKomi Republic in Russian Asia. They ended up getting split into four groups. The first was dropped off in the village ofZeschart; there were fifteen Kaminetz students in the group. The second group was dropped off in Aykany;[a] the third group, consisting of forty people, in settlement nearSyktivkar; and the fourth group was left 150 kilometres from the capital city. Among the fourth group was RabbiNaftali Leibowitz, the yeshiva'smashgiach.
You have before you a miniature gathering of the exiles: the yeshiva is packed with youth from all of the Jewish Diaspora. The boys sitting here are from Poland, America, Germany, England, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Hungary, as well as from the Land of Israel.
When the young bachur "Yankele Galinsky" met the Gadol Hador "HaRav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski ...
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