Rebbitzen Rivka Kahaneman, a’h, the almanah of Hagaon HaRav Avraham Kahaneman, z’tl, the Nasi of Yeshivas Ponezezh, was niftar in Ma’anyei Hayeshua Hospital on Sunday at the age of 99.

The Rebbitzen was born in Germany in 1921 to Rav Eliezer Knoller, z’tl, the Rosh Kahal of the Jewish community in Berlin, and his wife Chava, a’h. The family’s illustrious forebears include the Rambam, the Maharal, the Chavas Yair, and the Levush.

The Rebbitzen moved from place to place in France during the Holocaust, where she managed to refrain from eating non-kosher food with great mesirus nefesh.

After the war, the Rebbitzen was involved in Hatzalah work in Poland and other countries. Later, she moved to Eretz Yisrael, where she became a teacher for girls who survived the Holocaust.

She married HaRav Avraham Kahaneman, who had traveled alone to Israel in 1940, living with his grandmother in Tel Aviv and learning in Yeshivas Heichel HaTalmud. He was later joined by his father, the Ponovezher Rov, Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, zt”l, and Rav Avraham helped him re-establish Ponevezh Yeshivah in Bnei Brak.

The couple’s wedding was held in Ponevezh and they later lived in the United States to raise funds for the Ponvezher Yeshivah. The Rebbetzin stood by her husband’s side and supported him throughout the decades he spent assisting his father in supporting the yeshiva and then taking full responsibility for the financial maintenance of the yeshiva after the Ponevezher Rav’s passing in 1969.

She is survived by her son, Rav Eliezer Kahaneman, the current Nasi of the Ponovezher Yeshiva, and her daughter, Rebbetzin Tziporah Markowitz, wife of Rav Shmuel Markowitz, rosh yeshiva in Ponovezh and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Yehi Zichra Baruch.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)