The Golden Age of the Lithuanian Yeshivas

Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky, Nahum Schnitzer

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780253058492
• eBook ISBN: 9780253058515
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Baltic History

The Golden Age of the Lithuanian Yeshivas tells the story of the last chapter of Jewish rabbinical schools in Eastern Europe, from the eve of World War I to the outbreak of World War II.

The Lithuanian yeshiva established a rigorous standard for religious education in the early 1800s that persisted for over a century and continues to this day. Although dramatically reduced and forced into exile in Russia and Ukraine during World War I, the yeshivas survived the war, with yeshiva heads and older students forming the nucleus of the institutions. These scholars rehabilitated the yeshivas in their original locations and quickly returned to their regular activities. Moreover, they soon began to expand into areas now empty of yeshivas in lands occupied by Hasidic populations in Poland and even into the lands that would soon become Israel.

During the economic depression of the 1930s, students struggled for food and their leaders journeyed abroad in search for funding, but their determination and commitment to the yeshiva system continued. Despite the material difficulties that prevailed in the yeshivas, there was consistently a full occupancy of students, most of them in their twenties. Young men from all over the free world joined these yeshivas, which were considered the best training programs for the religious professions and rabbinical ordination. The outbreak of World War II and the Soviet occupation of first eastern Poland and then Lithuania marked the beginning of the end of the Yeshivas, however, and the Holocaust ensured the final destruction of the venerable institution.

The Golden Age of the Lithuanian Yeshivas is the first book-length work on the modern history of the Lithuanian yeshivas published in English. Through exhaustive historical research of every yeshiva, Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky brings to light for the first time the stories, lives, and inner workings of this long-lost world.

INDEX

Note: Page numbers in italics indicate a figure or a table.

Adler, Cyrus, 119

Aid Committee for Religious Educational Institutions, 125

aid to WWI-suffering Jews in Eastern Europe, American organized, 118

aid to yeshivas, Jewish organized, 117–22; of America, 112–14, 117–19, 123–24, 136, 222, 326; of Central Europe, 113; of Germany, 112; of London, 112; of South Africa, 113, 139

Alekna, Tadas, 274

Alexander II, Tsar, 238

aliyah, 187, 280–81, 299, 318n48, 340; certificates for the migrating yeshivas in WWII, 284–85, 297; certificates for the Novardok yeshivas, 97; of Knesset-Yisrael Slabodka branch, 91–94, 101–2, 334, 336; of Lomzhe branch, 95–96, 101–2; of Novardok branches, 96–98, 101–2; yeshivah heads’ worldview regarding, 89–90

Alliance, 118, 141n14

Amdur, 341

American Jewish Relief Committee, 118

Amtchislav, 56, 341

Amtchislav yeshivas, 56, 60, 237, 338, 341

army: Bolshevik Russian (see Russian army, Bolshevik); of the Cossacks of Chmelnitsky, 2; exemption from Polish, 25n31; Swedish, 2; Tsardom Russian (see Russian army, Tsardom); WWI German, 11, 35, 39, 41, 67, 118; WWII German, 266–68, 288n42, 295, 314; WWII Polish, 266–67; WWII Soviet, 267–69, 272, 290–91

Asher (Rosh), Rabbeinu, 166

Austria, 244

autonomy, Jewish: in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 2. See also Lithuania, independent: national autonomy for Jews in; Poland, Republic of: cultural autonomy for Jews in

Azherena, 312

Azov Sea, 68

Baksht, 334

Baksht, Aharon, 65, 191, 273, 333

Baltic countries, 17, 290. See also Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania

Baltic Sea, 2, 288n42

Baltimore, 26n37

Baranovitch, 87–88, 266; Hasidic court of Slonim in, 86, 98; post-WWI pass of Radin Yeshiva through, 61n5; in WWII, 267, 271

Baranovitch Ohel-Torah Yeshiva: acceptance of yeshiva-ketana graduates by, 226; heads, 204, 287; kibbutz class, 214, 228–29; multiage structure, 228; Musar supervisor, 204; popularity among Hasidim, 81; post-WWI reestablishment, 341; practical halachic studies in, 149; requests of acceptance to, 214; sixth class, 214; student population, 228; students’ age, 228–...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• I. Consolidation and Expansion
• II. Aspects of the Yeshiva World
• III. The Beginning of the End
• Epilogue
• Appendix: Brief Biographies
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author