Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak-Kaminetz
Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva, founded in Slabodka on the outskirts of Kaunas, Lithuania (then ruled by the Russian Empire), in 1897. The yeshiva later moved to Kamyenyets, then part of Poland, and currently in Belarus, and is therefore often referred to as the Kaminetz Yeshiva or simply Kaminetz. The yeshiva was famously led by Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz.
This article is about a yeshiva in pre-war Europe. For the yeshiva in Brooklyn, NY, see Yeshiva Toras Emes Kaminetz. For yeshiva in Jerusalem, see Yeshivas Kaminetz (Jerusalem).
Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak
הישיבה הגדולה כנסת בית יצחק
1897
1941
Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz
- Rabbi Reuven Grozovsky
- Rabbi Moshe Bernstein
- Rabbi Naftali Leibowitz (mashgiach ruchani)
350-400 (before World War II)
Early years[edit]
Founding[edit]
Originally, Slabodka boasted the famous Knesses Yisrael yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel in 1882.[1]: p. 50 However, in 1897, controversy broke out in the yeshiva, as many of the students were opposed to the yeshiva strong focus on mussar (Jewish ethics), as opposed to only studying Talmud.[1]: p. 56 The yeshiva therefore split into two, with the one against mussar going under the name Knesses Beis Yitzchok (named for the previous rabbi of Kaunas, Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor).[2] The rav of Slabodka, Rabbi Moshe Danishevsky, served as rosh yeshiva. Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, the rosh yeshiva of Knesses Yisrael, served alongside Rabbi Danishevsky in the town's beis din (Torah court). Despite the friction between the two yeshivos at the time of their division, the cooperation between the two rosh yeshivas thawed the ice.[2] Rabbi Chaim Rabinowitz also served as rosh yeshiva. However, a controversy between pro- and anti-Zionists broke out in the yeshiva, and Rabbi Rabinowitz left the yeshiva. Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz, a student of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik and formerly a rosh yeshiva in Halusk, was appointed as rosh yeshiva.
Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz[edit]
Despite the fact that Knesses Beis Yitzchak was not a mussar yeshiva, Rabbi Baruch Ber himself was uncomfortable being labeled as an opponent to mussar. His son-in-law, Rabbi Reuven Grozovsky, who taught in the yeshiva, was a student of the Knesses Yisrael yeshiva in Slabodka, and Rabbi Leibowitz said that only Knesses Yisrael could've produced such a fine personality.[1]: p. 57 Both of his sons-in-law, Rabbi Grozovsky and Rabbi Moshe Bernstein, taught in the yeshiva.
World War I[edit]
When World War I broke out in 1914, the yeshiva fled Slabodka for Minsk, and when the war reached there as well, the yeshiva moved further east, settling in Kremenchug in Ukraine, also under Russian Rule, in 1917;[3] Rabbi Leibowitz was with the yeshiva throughout its travels. However, war was rampant in Kremenchug also, with fighting between Ukrainian nationalists and the Russians, as well as between the Red and White armies, and in the yeshiva moved again in 1921, this time to Vilna, a bustling city in Lithuania with a large Jewish population, where they remained for five years. In Vilna, the action of the big city served as a disturbance, and Rabbi Leibowitz moved the yeshiva in 1926 to Kaminetz, a city in the Second Polish Republic.[4]
Golden Years[edit]
The yeshiva was welcomed by the Kaminetz Jewish community; the community marched out to greet them, clad in holiday attire, with an orchestra leading the way. Rabbi Leibowitz was seated on a fancy chair, upholstered in velvet, and lifted into the air. The procession then walked with the yeshiva until they reached the yeshiva's new building. A festive meal was then had.[3]
The yeshiva grew exponentially in their new home, with as many as 350-400 students (generally in their late twenties, although a few students were in their thirties),[5] with another 50 in the mechina (a preparatory school for younger students), and seven men in the kollel.[4] Students flocked to the yeshiva from all over the continent, as well as from Palestine and America.[6] The growth of the yeshiva led to a lack of space in their building, and so Mr. Gershon Galin, a Kaminetz native who had emigrated to the United States, took upon himself to erect a new building, and took the first step by purchasing a piece of land and being the first one to donate towards the building fund. In 1932, the building's foundation was laid. On the eighth day Chanukah in 1937, the dedication of the new building was celebrated, in the presence of rabbis from throughout the region.[3]