"A forgotten postcard from 1935 Knyszyn helped shape the future of Torah in America"

Title: Signed in Knyszyn, Sealed in Eternity

Location: Knyszyn

Document: Postcard to the Vaad Hayeshivos

Time: 1935

Among the graves in the Holon Cemetery in central Israel stand many special stone memorials — each a silent eulogy for a town that once pulsed with Jewish life, now etched only in memory. These monuments honor communities like Apta, Kalushin, and Vishnev, whose names have become synonymous with the world lost in the Holocaust.

One monument is dedicated to the memory of “Kedoshei Kehillas Knyszyn” — the holy martyrs of the Polish town of Knyszyn. Once home to a proud and deeply rooted Jewish community, Knyszyn was the site of one of the region’s worst massacres during the war.

The monument’s inscription notes that it was erected by the landsleit (emigre community) from Knyszyn and nearby Bialystok. For the small group of survivors who gathered the strength to commemorate their hometown, the stone was more than a marker — it was a testament. Though the town’s Jewish life had been physically erased, its spiritual legacy endured. Knyszyn, in their hearts, was never a mere suburb of Bialystok, it was their very own small sanctuary of Torah, tefillah, and chesed. They took tremendous pride in its rabbis, institutions, and everyday pious Jews who left an indelible imprint on Jewish history.

Nestled in the Bialystok region of northeastern Poland, Knyszyn became, by the early 20th century, a regional hub for Torah learning and religious observance. The town’s spiritual leadership reads like a roll call of greatness. Among its earlier rabbanim were Rav Binyamin Beżka Ladzman, author of Ben Oni; Rav Yosef Chaver, son of Rav Yitzchok Isaac Chaver; and Rav Eliyahu Akiva Rabinowitz-Teomim, each of whom helped shape Knyszyn’s spiritual foundations. In the early 20th century, the rabbanus passed to Rav Dovid Fajns, a leading Mizrachi figure and distinguished talmid chacham, before he was called to serve in Bialystok. He was succeeded by his son-in-law, Rav Chaim Yaakov Mishkinski, a Slabodka-trained scholar known for his brilliance, moral clarity, and communal leadership throughout the 1920s.

In the interwar years, Knyszyn’s religious infrastructure expanded dramatically. It boasted multiple synagogues, a mikveh, charitable institutions, and Torah classes that filled its beis medrash long after nightfall. Though small in size, Knyszyn served as a spiritual anchor for nearby villages and earned a reputation for passionate observance and deep scholarship.

However, it was not immune to the ideological currents sweeping through society. Zionist youth movements, socialist circles, and underground Communist cells all found their way into town, each offering bold visions of the future that threatened to lure impressionable minds away from the ancient rhythms of Torah. The local branch of the Bund organized clandestine meetings, and agitators from Bialystok arrived to distribute literature and recruit youth for the cause. Debates erupted in marketplaces, literature circulated discreetly in alleyways, and the youth stood at a crossroads.

It was here, amid this quiet tension, that Rav Chaim Zelig HaLevi Polak took up the mantle of leadership.

Rav Polak, who had previously served as the rabbi of Rakov, became the spiritual leader of Knyszyn sometime after World War I. A dignified figure known for his wisdom and warmth, he was equally devoted to halachic precision and the needs of the people. Beyond his duties as posek and dayan, he established a yeshivah for local youth — a modest but fervent institution that served as a gateway to the great yeshivos of Poland. His partner in this endeavor was Rav Moshe Galin.

Documents from the archives of the Vaad Hayeshivos tell us that several students went on to study in nearby branches of the Novardok Yeshivah (which was headquartered in nearby Bialystok), and a few managed to make their way to Baranovich, Grodno, Mir, and beyond. The letters in the archive tell of Rav Polak’s heroic efforts to fund their tuition and placement — reflecting an unwavering commitment to raising the next generation of Torah giants.

This passion is evident in a remarkable letter he penned on 13 Tishrei 5696 (1935) to the Vaad Hayeshivos. Founded by the Chofetz Chaim and other gedolim, the Vaad Hayeshivos was established to financially support and organize the network of yeshivos across Eastern Europe during a time of dire poverty and postwar disruption. It served as a central office for scholarship funding, student placement, and advocacy on behalf of the yeshivah world.

The letter accompanied funds raised in the town to support the Vaad’s holy work — but also carried a personal request. Of the 20 young men Rav Polak had helped send to yeshivos that year, there was one who stood out. A 14-year-old prodigy, wise beyond his years, gifted with clarity, depth, and a thirst for truth. His name was Shmuel Berenbaum.

13 Tishrei 5696

Office of the Vaad Hayeshivos, may they live and be well,

This week I sent you through the post the sum of 75 zloty for the benefit of the holy work of the Vaad Hayeshivos.

I am hereby requesting your assistance: Of the twenty young boys whom Hashem granted me the merit to send from our local school to yeshivos this year — a task that cost me dearly, both financially and emotionally — there is one exceptional boy who has distinguished himself with remarkable intellectual capabilities, and a deep, clear understanding.

I see nowhere else more appropriate for him than the Baranovich Yeshivah, where his talents will be properly nurtured.

Therefore, I ask you to please intercede on behalf of this 14-year-old boy, named Shmuel Berenbaum, and see that he is accepted to the Baranovich Yeshivah and notify me promptly, as soon as possible, so that he can travel there immediately after Yom Tov.

With honor and blessings of Torah,

Signed: Chaim Zelig HaLevi (Polak)

The boy named in Rav Polak’s 1935 letter would indeed find his way to the Baranovich Yeshivah. There, under the towering influence of Rav Elchonon Wasserman and Rav Yisroel Yaakov Lubchansky, Shmuel Berenbaum blossomed into a budding gaon.

He later transferred to the Mirrer Yeshivah, where he continued to ascend under the guidance of Rav Leizer Yudel Finkel and Rav Chatzkel Levenstein. With the outbreak of World War II, he joined the yeshivah’s miraculous escape across Siberia to Kobe and then Shanghai, learning without pause throughout the war years in exile.

After the war, Rav Shmuel arrived in America with the transplanted Mir Yeshivah, settling in Brooklyn and eventually marrying the daughter of Rav Avraham Kalmanowitz, the giant among men who had led the rescue of the Mirrer Yeshivah (and ironically had served as rav in Rakov at the same time as Rav Polak).

Over the decades that followed, Rav Shmuel Berenbaum would emerge as one of the premier roshei yeshivah in the United States. As rosh yeshivah of the Mirrer Yeshivah Brooklyn, he became legendary for his hasmadah, his clarity in shiur, and his fierce love for Torah and every single talmid. His presence in the beis medrash — day in, day out, for more than half a century — embodied the unbroken transmission of the prewar yeshivah world to American soil.

By the time he was niftar in 2008, Rav Shmuel Berenbaum had thousands of talmidim who helped mold the landscape of Torah in America. Even the ones who did not remain in learning remained devoted to Torah, becoming some of the most prolific supporters of Torah of their time.

Rav Shmuel’s journey — from a humble Polish town to the leadership of one of the largest yeshivos in the world — was not just a personal odyssey, but a testament to what can emerge from a single handwritten postcard, a devoted rav, and a community determined to send its children to learn. The monument in Holon may bear the names of the town’s martyrs, but their legacy lives on in talmidim like Rav Shmuel — whose Torah continues to illuminate the world.

And out from Knyszyn Went Torah

Knyszyn’s spiritual legacy belied its modest size. It was the birthplace of Rav Moshe Londinski, who later served as rosh yeshivah in Radin alongside the Chofetz Chaim, shaping generations of talmidim with his mussar and depth. The town was also home to families whose descendants would go on to seed Torah centers across Europe, America, and Eretz Yisrael. Among its distinguished natives were Dayan Susman Cohen (1841–1907) of London; Yisrael Hillel Kaplinsky (1906–1929), one of the Chevron Yeshivah’s distinguished bochurim tragically murdered in the 1929 massacre; and Rav Zalman Drori (1915–2001), who served for decades as a beloved maggid shiur in Ponevezh L’Tzeirim.

Thank you to Moshe Dembitzer for sharing this incredible find with us.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1061)