The Radin Yeshivah stood at the forefront of Torah dissemination in Eastern Europe

Title: The Chofetz Chaim’s List

Location: Radin, Poland

Document: Vaad Hayeshivos list of Radin Yeshivah students

Time: Summer zeman of 1930

W

ith luminaries like the saintly Chofetz Chaim, Rav Moshe Londinski, and — until his untimely passing in 1928 — Rav Naftali Trop at the helm, the Radin Yeshivah stood at the forefront of Torah dissemination in Eastern Europe. A seemingly mundane list of names was submitted to the Vilna-based Vaad Hayeshivos, within the framework of the annual allocation of desperately needed funds. The dry data offers a window into the world of the yeshivah, as well as a glimpse of a future generation of Torah leaders.

The Kollel Kodshim

The Kollel Kodshim in Radin was the brainchild of the Chofetz Chaim, as an initiative to promote the study of Kodshim in anticipation of Mashiach’s arrival. Future leaders such as the Ponevezher Rav, Rav Dovid Leibowitz, Rav Elchonon Wasserman, Rav Avraham Kalmanowitz, Rav Eliyahu Dushnitzer were among its early students. The Chofetz Chaim’s young son-in-law Rav Mendel Zaks was appointed to head the kollel in the 1920s.

So many luminaries, each with a unique story. Here is just a small sample.

PROFILES

#62 | Gershon Yankelewitz — One of the leading talmidim of Rav Yerucham Levovitz in Mir, Rav Gershon was also a prominent “Radiner.” Following his sojourns with the Mirrer Yeshivah in Shanghai, in 1958 he joined RIETS, where he gave the semichah shiur for more than five decades before his passing in 2010 at the age of 104.

#65 | Dovid Zaritzky — From Novardok and the Chofetz Chaim, he then went on to become a prolific writer for Torah Jewry in almost every genre. He wrote articles for Hamodia, children’s magazines, Bais Yaakov, books on Torah topics, chassidus, mussar, Jewish thought, fiction, prose, stories, history, and much more.

#85 | Chaim Chaikin — After many years in Radin, Rav Chaikin became a young rosh yeshivah in a Paris suburb. War forced the closure of the yeshivah, and Rav Chaikin found himself drafted into the ill-fated French army. Fortunately for him, the Germans often adhered to the Geneva Conventions when it came to POWs on the Western front, and he survived. Returning to his position after the war, he spent decades teaching Torah to French Jewry.

#120 | Yaakov Shurkin — Having studied under the Chofetz Chaim for an unparalleled 16 years, he was privileged to perform the taharah upon his rebbi’s passing. He subsequently married the daughter of Rav Yaakov Kantrowitz and served as a rosh yeshivah in Chaim Berlin for many years.

#135 | Yerucham Gorelick — In addition to Radin, he was a close student of the Brisker Rav — Rav Yitzchak Ze’ev Soloveitchik. Following the passing of the Chofetz Chaim, he said many hespeidim for his rebbi around Lithuania. He served as a rosh yeshivah in RIETS for 40 years, and among his Torah educational activities in the Bronx, he founded the Zichron Moshe Yeshivah, which eventually moved to South Fallsburg.

#156 | Mordechai Savitzky — An acclaimed author on the Yerushalmi from a young age, Rav Savitzky was close with many of the Torah giants of his youth, including the Rogatchover Gaon, Rav Yosef Rosen, with whom he maintained a lively correspondence. Later a rabbi in Boston for many years, his son Rav Yosef is the current rosh yeshivah of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath.

#204 | Kalman Farber — The author of a diary that offers a rare glimpse into the world of yeshivah student during the Holocaust. In it, he describes the struggles to keep kosher and maintain a semblance of a Jewish life in the face of the inhumane conditions in the Vilna Ghetto and later in the HKP labor camp. He went on to add chapters on his upbringing in the Ramailes Yeshivah in Vilna and Radin, providing us a rich memoir of a lost world.

#224 | Shmuel Walkin — Scion of a great rabbinic family, he then married the granddaughter of Radin rosh yeshivah Rav Moshe Londinski. Following a sojourn in Shanghai during the war years, he was appointed to leading rabbinical positions in the United States, while his son Rav Chaim continues as one of the leading mashgichim of our time.

#230 | Shalom Galai — After his mother escorted him on the long trek to Radin, young Shalom received a very special invitation: to eat hi#s meals at the Chofetz Chaim’s own home, where he would be privileged to absorb the atmosphere on a daily basis. Surviving the war and arriving in Haifa, he raised a family, among whom is his son the renowned Torah leader Rav Shimon Galai, who continues his legacy.

Credits: YIVO, YU Archives, Walkin family, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Shurkin

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 812)