Today’s Yahrtzeits & History – 25 Cheshvan

Rav Avraham, brother of the Vilna Gaon, author of Maalos Hatorah (1807)

Rav Mordechai Rokeach, Rav of Bilgoria (Bilgoraya) (1949). The 4th Admor of Belz, after Rav Yissacher Ber Rokeach and before Rav Yissacher Ber Rokeach.

Rav Elya Yurkanski (1908-2005). Born in Minsk, he and two brothers were smuggled over the order to Poland, on a recommendation by the Chafetz Chaim; Reb Elya was not yet a Bar Mitzvah, and he would never again see his parents. He spent almost 10 years in Baranovich with Rav Elchonon Wasserman before leaving for Mir in 1929. He traveled with the yeshiva to Shanghai and eventually joined the yeshiva in New York, where he remained his entire life. He was a Rosh Yeshiva with Mir for over 55 years.

Today in History – 25 Cheshvan

· Yochanan Hyrcanus defeated the Samaritans in Shomron and destroyed their temple on Mt. Gerizim, 109 BCE
· Mobs attack Jews of Cracow, 1407.
· Birth of Rav Gedalya Schorr (1911-1979)
· The half-million Jews of Warsaw, Poland, were forced to live within a walled ghetto, 1940.

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