His dream was to build a living monument to the litvish Torah world decimated in the Holocaust
Title: “The Greatest Yeshivah Faculty of All Time?”
Location: Ponevezh Yeshivah, Bnei Brak, Israel
Document: Ponevezh Yeshivah Fundraising Brochure
Time: 1957
The vision of the great Ponevezher Rav, Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, was to rebuild a lost world. He assembled an unparalleled staff of Torah greats under one roof: Rav Shmuel Rozovsky brought the distinct learning style of Rav Shimon Shkop; Rav Dovid Povarsky came with the legacy of the Mir in Poland; Rav Chatzkel Levenstein supplied the towering mussar of Kelm; and Rav Shach added his experience from Kletzk. And that’s just the senior staff! The junior rebbeim could hold their own, with Rav Chaim Friedlander eventually becoming mashgiach , and the Steipler’s promising young son-in-law Rav Shlomo Berman already making an impact in the yeshivah. Rav Berel Povarsky and Rav Gershon Edelstein carry on the tradition at the helm of Ponevezh today.
Did You Know
The Mashgiach Rav Chatzkel had sojourned far and wide prior to his appointment at Ponevezh, having served as a mashgiach in Kletzk, Lomza–Petach Tikvah, and in the Mir in its various incarnations in Poland, Shanghai, New York, and Yerushalayim. Rav Shach reached Ponevezh in 1952 after a similarly lengthy itinerary: Kletzk, Stolin-Luninitz, the Yishuv Hachadash in Tel Aviv, Novardok, Lomza-Petach Tikvah, and Kletzk-Rechovot.
Did You Know
As a young talmid in Telshe, the Ponevezher Rav had been opposed to the mussar movement. Despite his previous position, he hired some of the greatest mussar giants as mashgichim in Ponevezh in Bnei Brak. As his dream was to build a living monument to the litvish Torah world decimated in the Holocaust, he felt that the talmud Torah of Kelm should be immortalized through the likes of Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler and Rav Chatzkel Levenstein as successive mashgichim.
