Tonight, a kinnus of chizuk for Torah and yiras Shomayim will be held to mark the 51st yahrtzeit of Rav Reuven Grozovsky zt”l, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Kamenitz, Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and Bais Medrash Elyon. The gathering will take place at Kehillas Bais Yisroel, located at 5602 11th Avenue in Boro Park, Brooklyn, at 8 p.m. The gathering will feature remarks from Rav Chaim Boruch Wolpin, a talmid of Rav Reuven and rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Karlin Stolin. A shiur of Rav Reuven’s will be delivered by Rav Boruch Ber Grozovsky.
A minyan for Maariv will be held before the asifa.
Rav Refoel Reuvain Grozovsky was born in 1896 in Minsk, Belarus, and was the son of Rav Shimshon Grozovsky, the leading dayan of Minsk. He attended Yeshiva Knesses Yisrael, the Slabodka yeshiva, and learned under Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein and the Alter of Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel.
In 1919, Rav Reuven married the daughter of Rav Baruch Ber Lebowitz zt”l. After his marriage, Rav Reuven moved to the Vilna suburb of Lukishuk. Later, he moved with his father-in-law to Kaminetz and continued to learn at the yeshiva there. Rav Reuven had two sons and two daughters and he eventually became the rosh yeshiva of the Kaminetzer Yeshiva.
During World War II, Rav Reuven escaped Europe and the Holocaust with a group of his talmidim and arrived on the west coast of the United States. He then journeyed to New York where he joined Rav Aharon Kotler and Rav Avraham Kalmanowitz in leading the Vaad Hatzalah’s efforts to save Jews from the Nazi Holocaust, including lobbying and fundraising. In the process, he also brought 110 members of the Kaminetzer kehillah to safety in America.
Rav Reuven was extremely active in Agudas Yisroel but worked behind the scenes.
Rav Reuven was asked by Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz to head Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn. Rav Reuven would arrive at Bais Medrash Elyon in Monsey, New York, every Thursday and remained awake all night preparing for his Friday shiur. He returned to Brooklyn on Monday.
Rav Reuven was niftar in 1958. He was survived by his sons, Rav Shamshon, a marbitz Torah for many years, and Rav Chaim, who was niftar in 1999, and his daughters, Rebbetzin Ugarisher, wife of Rav Don Ungarisher shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Bais Medrash Elyon, and , Rebbetzin Rochel Krupenia, wife of Rav Levi Krupenia zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Kamenitz.
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