Today is the 33rd yahrtzeit of Rav Shmuel Rozovsky zt”l, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ponovezh. Rav Shmuel was born in Grodna to Rav Michel Dovid, rov of Grodna for 40 years, and Sarah Pearl, daughter of Rav Avraham Gelburd, who had served as Grodna’s previous rov for almost 50 years.
At a very young age, Rav Shmuel began to study in the Shaar HaTorah Yeshivah of Grodna, under Rav Shimon Shkop, eventually becoming his talmid muvhak.
In 1935, his father was niftar, and the gedolei Torah urged Rav Shmuel to succeed him. However, he was drafted into the Russian army and moved to Eretz Yisrael. There he began studying in the Lomza Yeshivah in Petach Tikvah.
In 1944, Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponovezher Rov, opened the Ponovezh Yeshivah and chose Rav Shmuel, only 30 at the time, to head the yeshivah. Later on, he was joined by Rav Dovid Povarsky and Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach. Subsequently, he was asked by Rav Kahaneman to head the newly founded Grodna Yeshiva in Ashdod.
{Casriel Bauman-Matzav.com Newscenter}
