Today’s Yahrtzeits & History – 26-27 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeits – 26 Cheshvan

Rav Shlomo Segal, Av Beis Din Polna’ah and Lvov, he authored MiBeis Levi (1638)

Rav Raphael Hoken of Hamburg (1723-1803). Born in Liphland to Rav Yekusiel Ziskind, the Rav of the town, Reb Raphael was taken to learn with the Shaagas Aryeh, a relative of theirs, in Minsk, at the age of 12. At the age of 19, Rav Raphael replaced his rebbi as Rosh Yeshiva in Minsk. Four years later, he was chosen as Rav of Rakow, and later of Smilowitz. In 1763, he became Rav in Pinsk. There he wrote Toras Yekusiel on Yoreh Deah, with an appendix of halachos pertaining to agunos. Leter he became Rav in Posen, and in 1776 of the three kehillos of Atuna, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck (AH”U). He also authored Sheilos Hakohanim Torah on the avodah of the kohanim, Sh’Ut Veshav Hakohen, Mapei Lahon on the issur of lashon harah, and Daas Kedoshim.

Rav Simcha Soloveitchik, son of the Bais Halevi (1941)

Rav Aryeh Mordechai Halberstam of Shinova (1930)

Rav Elya Juransky, Rosh Yeshiva in Mir, Brooklyn (2005)

Rav Mordechai Zimmerman, renown mohel (1913-2005). Born in New York to Rav Yosef Yehoshua and Shaina Rochel Zimmerman, he attended Torah Vodaas, which his father help found. He and his two brothers were sent to Mir and Grodna in Europe. While in Europe, he met with the Chafetz Chaim. He received his ksav semicha from Rav Shimon Shkop. After his marriage, he settled in Dubuque, Iowa for 5 years, then settled in the Bronx. In the mid-1980s, he moved to Boro Park, where he became a prominent member of the Mirrer minyon. He is survived by two sons, a daughter, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Yahrtzeits – 27 Cheshvan

Rav Yaakov Leizer, the Pshevorsker Rebbe, also known as RebYankele of Antwerp (1907-1999). Born in the small village of Roig near Riminov in Galicia, he joined the yeshiva in the town of Dukla after his bar mitzvah. Among those who learned there were Reb Yekusiel Halberstam (the future Klausenberger Rebbe) and Reb Pinchos Hirshprung (the future Rav of Montreal). From Dukla, Reb Yankele moved on to Yeshivas Zera Kodesh in Koloshitz. Staying there from 1924 to 1939, Reb Yankele regarded the Koloshitzer Rav as his Rebbe and mentor. His first position was as Rav of Yashlisk, at the age of 24. After his marriage to the daughter of Reb Itzikel, the Rebbe of Pshevorsk in 1934, he lived in the shadow of his shver for the next forty years. When the Germans arrived in Pshevorsk, Reb Itzikel and Reb Yankele fled to Lemberg, which was under the control of Russia. On the 23rd of Sivan 1940 the KGB swooped down on Lemberg and arrested all those who had refused Russian citizenship, among them Reb Itzikel and Reb Yankele. The Jews were put on trains to Siberia. The Germans entered Lemberg a short while later and brutally murdered almost the whole Jewish population. Those who had been exiled to Siberia were the lucky ones. After the war’s end, Reb Yankele took up the position of dayan in the town of Breslau, a position he kept for two years. From Breslau, Reb Yankele moved to Paris where his shver was residing and then finally they both moved to Antwerp. With Reb Itzikel’s petirah on Yom Kippur 1976, Reb Yankele was chosen as his shver’s successor. He was succeeded by his only son, Rav Leibish Leizer.

Today in History – 26 Cheshvan         

·       At the behest of King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella, Pope Sixtus IV issued a Bill empowering the monarchs to establish an inquisitional tribunal to investigate charges of heresy, 1478. The Spanish inquisition – which spread to all Spanish and later Portuguese (1536) colonies and possessions – was only disbanded on July 15, 1834.
·       King Manuel of Portugal decrees this as the final deadline by which time members of the Portuguese Jewish community must leave the kingdom, 1497. Those staying behind were forcibly baptized.
·       First Jewish wedding in Argentina, 1860.
·       The US Senate rejected to Treaty of Versailles with a vote of 55-39, short of the required two-thirds majority, 1919.
·       The Peel Commission investigates the Arab riots, 1936, eventually concluding that all Arab claims are withough merit. Nontheless, the Commission encouraged partition into separate Arab and Jewish states in an (unsuccessful) effort to appease Arab objections to a Jewish state.
·       First anti-Semitic attack over radio in the U.S. by Father Caughlin, 1938.
·       Nazis execute 12,000 Minsk Jews, 1942.
·       Ashdod port open for business, 1965.
 
Today in History – 27 Cheshvan        

·       The U.S. agrees not to protest against Swiss discrimination against American Jews, 1855.
·       Rafa Pass and Mitla Pass fall into Israeli hands, Sinai Campaign, 1956.
·       United Nations adopts resolution equating Zionism with racism, 1975.
·       Yasser Arafat dies in Paris, 2004.

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