By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times
This past Shabbos was Rav Aharon Kotler zatzal’s 53rd yartzeit. On the occasion of his yartzeit the Five Towns Jewish Times is printing this biographical sketch.
On Thursday April 10th, 1941, the day before Erev Pesach, Rav Aharon, his wife, and his daughter Sara arrived in the United States by boat in San Francisco. On Monday, April 14th, the first day of Chol HaMoed, Rav Aharon took a train out east and arrived at Penn Station one week later on April 21, 1941.
At Penn Station he was greeted by a number of people. He spoke immediately and told the audience of the Talmidim that he had left in three different places; in Kobe Japan, in Shanghai, China and also in Siberia. He said, “I did not come to this country to save myself. I came so that with your help, we could save our brethren and the centers of Torah learning. Only you, the Yidden of America are able to help them. Do it now, save them.”
Immediately, he plunged into the work of Hatzolah. To his disappointment he observed a number of groups working independently and disjointedly. Rav Kotler showed a remarkable propensity to work with a wide group of people and was able to convince such eclectic groups as Mizrachi, Young Israel, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, and the other Orthodox groups to join in under one umbrella organization – the Vaad Hatzolah.
In October of 1941, the Vaad held a meeting where, at the suggestion of Stephen Klein the owner of Barton’s candy and an active member of the Vaad, an official board of directors was formed, an executive director was to be hired, and a select committee was elected. Rav Kotler took a leading role .
When Rav Aharon stayed in Washington, he stayed at the home of Benjamin Nachman Grossberg, who was the Shamash in a shul in Washington and some twenty-five years older than Rav Aharon. Mr. Grossberg was born in Kovno and merited arichas yamim, passing away at the age of 103.
In a very short amount of time, Rav Aharon and the Vaad Hatzolah mastered the complexities of transferring funds and sending money for dispersal to Jews everywhere.
On December 7th, 1941, just a few months after his arrival in New York, a friend of Rav Aharon from his days in the Slabodka Yeshiva, Reb Dovid Leibowitz, passed away. Rav Aharon spoke to his only son, Rav Henoch Leibowitz, and determined that his friend’s son was a Talmid Chochom in his own right. Rav Aharon stated that Rav Henoch should take his father’s place as Rosh Yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim yeshiva on South Ninth Street in Williamsburg.
One year after his arrival in New York, Rav Aharon was in for a bit of a shock. On April 27th, 1942, Rav Aharon actually had to register for the draft for the United States Army. It was called the “Old Man’s Registration” or the Fourth Registration and Rav Aharon, of course, complied. This draft was conducted on 27 April 1942 and registered men who born on or between 28 April 1877 and 16 February 1897 – men who were between 45 and 64 years old – and who were not already in the military. The card included an entry for the name and address of person who would always know the registrant’s whereabouts.
Rav Aharon worked with anyone and everyone who could assist in getting the Yeshiva students out of Europe. He even worked with Stephen S. Wise. Some people actually criticized him for doing so, on account of the fact that he was a leader of Reform Jewry. Rav Kotler responded, “I would work with the Pope himself if it would save even the fingernail of a Jewish child!”
Notwithstanding all of Rav Kotler’s efforts on behalf of saving Jews, he still stole time to converse in Torah. On Saturday evening June 13, 1942, he penned a letter to Rav Eliezer Silver, who he worked with in the Vaad Hatzolah about a complex topic involving the on time payment of a worker in tractate Bava Metziah . He carried on correspondences with Rav Untermann, the then Chief Rabbi of Liverpool, England and the future chief Rabbi of Israel. He wrote to other Rabbanim as well, including Rabbi Eliezer Zev Kirzner of Stamford Hill, London who was later to serve as the Rabbi of Bnei Yehudah in Boro Park.
Some time toward the end of 1942 Rav Aharon called a meeting of all Bnei Torah in the Clymer Street Shul in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. About 150 bochurim came to the meeting. Rav Aharon now knew that the European Yeshiva world was now dead, and not soon to be rebuilt. The future of this Torah world would have to be rebuilt in America. He told them that the generations of the past were likened to diamonds, gold and silver. They, the current generation, were merely iron. But iron is what the links of a chain are made of. They must continue the chain. It was a transformative shmuess.
In early 1943, Beis Medrash Gavoha was established. It began in White Plains, in Westchester County, New York, when a number of students under Rav Nosson Wachtfogel joined together to study. They soon invited Rav Aharon to give shiurim.
Eventually, the Yeshiva moved to Lakewood, New Jersey. Why the move from White Plains to Lakewood? There are different theories, but it is likely that the situation in Westchester was not conducive to giving Rav Aharon giving his shiurim.
A new location was now necessary. Like White Plains, Rav Aharon wanted a town with few distractions, a town close enough to New York, yet a town outside of New York. Irving Bunim came up with Lakewood, New Jersey. Lakewood, at the time, was a resort town with many hotels.
They engaged the services of Reb Menashe Rabbinowitz, a realtor in New Jersey. They found a building at 617 Seventh Street, owned by a Mr. Kaufman who had recently passed away. His relative was very enthusiastic about the project, particularly because he had the real estate agent participate in a chazannus memorial for World War I soldiers some twenty years earlier . In April of 1943 a building was purchased and renovations began immediately. As soon as they could, the bochurim moved in and began learning.
Notwithstanding Rav Aharon’s vast erudition and desire to plummet the depths of learning, he was always very careful never to learn during the repetition of the Shmoneh Esreh . Once Rav Aharon had to daven where there was no minyan. A student observed him davening and was somewhat surprised to hear that Rav Aharon’s Shmoneh Esreh was being recited somewhat aloud – to the extent that the Talmid could make out the words.
In the Yeshiva, Rav Aharon applied his own unique method of chinuch, where he attempted to inspire each student to attain the maximum that he could . Once, for example, a student who, in general, arrived at Yeshiva on time came late. Rav Aharon spoke to him in harsher terms than he spoke to others. The idea was so that he could get each student to work to his maximum potential.
The financial offices of the Yeshiva, where Rav Aharon spent a lot of time, were at the St. James Building, located at 1133 Broadway, in Manhattan. The building was designed by the famous American architect, Bruce Price, who also designed the Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey now, not far from BMG. These offices were located around the corner from the office of Irving Bunim, and Rav Aharon visited Mr. Bunim almost daily, both on behalf of the Yeshiva, as well as for other projects.
On December 26th, 1944, Rav Aharon travelled with Irving Bunim to Washington to meet someone in the State Department regarding the issue of rescue. It was asarah b’Taives and initially, he had urged Mr. Bunim to eat. Reb Irving refused, stating that he felt fine. On the way back, Reb Irving wished to eat and Rav Aharon responded that there was no longer a heter, since they had completed the serious task that they had faced.
On Nov. 15th 1945, Rav Aharon applied for a visa to leave the US in Philadelphia. On December 17th, 1945, Rav Aharon arrived in Southampton England on his way to Palestine aboard the Queen Elizabeth. In 1946, Rav Aharon sailed from Liverpool, England on February 22, 1946 aboard the Empire Ettrick, a ship seized by the British from the Nazis, and arrived back in the US on March 7th.
Initially, when he first arrived, Rav Kotler resided at 43 West 93rd Street in Manhattan. Later he moved to an apartment in Boro Park on 47th Street and 15th Avenue. His apartment in Boro Park was sparsely furnished. The sefarim shrank, the bookcases, were constructed from the fruit boxes from the local grocery store. The furniture was second-hand and sometimes even third-hand. His entire Shas was culled from sheimos .
In Boro Park, where Rav Aharon spent most of his time he made sure to daven at the Shtiebel of Rav Tzudik Sheingarten on 48th Street between 15th and 16th Avenue. He did this to be mechazaik him .
His driver and one of his students was Reb Velvel Perl. One time, during a day long fund-raising expedition Rav Aharon returned almost empty-handed with only five dollars. He told his driver and student not to tell anyone what had happened that day, “Otherwise, no one will ever want to be a Rosh Yeshiva.”
His relationship with his students was like a father to a son. One time when Rav Aharon was giving a shiur, Reb Velvel had nodded off. A fellow student had given him a gentle nudge because he was sleeping. Rav Aharon said, “Leave mein kind alone, he was up the entire night studying .”
Rav Aharon used to travel to Eretz Yisroel and give shiurim in his father-in-law’s Yeshiva Etz Chaim. On one such trip he met his future son-in-law, Rav Dov Schwartzman.
Prior to Rav Aharon’s arrival in the United States, the Agudah in America was vastly different than the organization it was to become. In the 1930’s Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung, was a leading personality, along with Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of the West Side Institutional Synagogue. Both of them had a decidedly Modern Orthodox outlook. Not that this was not what was needed at the time. The Chofetz Chaim himself had once approached a young Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung and begged him to dedicate himself to constructing a modern Mikvah that would appeal to the newer generation of women. Dr. Jung followed the Chofetz Chaim’s request faithfully.
Rabbi Eliezer Silver was also an important personality in the early Agudah, and often Rav Kotler and Rav Silver disagreed as to the correct approach to matters in the Vaad Hatzolah.
The author can be reached at [email protected]
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One Response
“…had a decidedly Modern Orthodox outlook. Not that this was not what was needed at the time.”
Rav Aharon Kotler said that MO, at its essence was the same as Reform. And the Chofetz Chaim’s request for a “modern” mikva has nothing to do with Modern Orthodoxy.
No. “MO” was NOT needed at the time (nor ever, for that matter). The Torah’s truth is never to be compromised.