Friday, June 17, 2005

Deepest of the deep

blogger Amshinover sends this interesting pic as a follow-up to A
true friend('s son)


The Amshinover Rebbe of Yerushalayim with Shlomo Carlebach.
He writes:
Rav Yerachmiel Yehuda Meir Kalish, the Amshinover Rebbe. Born in Peshischa, he learned with his grandfather, Rav Menachem, who was the grandson of the first Amshinover Rebbe, Rav Yaakov David. When Rav Mencahem passed away in 1918, one of his sons, Rav Yosef, became the Rebbe of Amshinov, and the other son, Rav Shimon Shalom – Rav Meir’s father – became Rebbe in Otvotzk. Rav Shimon was a major driving force behind the exodus of thousands of bachurim in Mir, Kletzk, Radin, Novardak, and other yeshivos to Japan and Shanghai at the outbreak of World War II. By the time Shanghai came under Japanese control, it held 26,000 Jews. After the war, Rav Shimon immigrated to America. Upon his petira in 1954, Rav Meir accompanied the aron to Teveria in Eretz Yisrael. He later moved to Tel Aviv, and then to the Bayit Vegan section of Yerushalayim. Rav Meir was noted for his genius in Torah, as well as his warmth and sensitivity to all Jews. His grandson, Rav Yaakov Aryeh Milikowski, succeeded him as the Amshinover Rebbe.(1901-1976

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

When is this picture from?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Maybe Amshinover can enlighten us.

Anonymous said...

How is he related to the Amshinover in BP?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

the old Amshinover in BP, Rav Yitzchok, was Reb Shimmele's son?

Anonymous said...

"A driving force in the Exodus of Yeshiva bachurim to Shanghai"
This is a Guzma and just not true.. The Amshinover rebbe left with the Yeshiva contingent 90% of which were Mirer students . The driving force behind this move were several senior Mirer students who saw the opportunity and grabbed and forced the hanhola of MIr to agree even though the Hanhola was agaisnt the escape .Their names are well known to the Mirer in the US and several were well known gedolei Israel. The Amshinover rebbe acted as mentor and father to the Chassidic contingent in Shanghai and was regarded as a senior spiritual leader . Even the Lubavitch contingent were all Peylisher and some even Amshinover from birth so he was a special Spiritual person,(together with rav Ashkenazi, Rav Chaskel levinstein and rav Chaim Shmulevitz ) but hardly the driving force behind this daring escape from Lithuania and the nazi hell.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

a major driving force, not "THE" driving force.

Anonymous said...

He was not even A major driving force in this move. The MIr had many alte bachurim (men in their 30's or 40's) it was several of them (led by the gaon Rav leib Mallin) who decided to accept the Curacao exit visas in Kovna and take a chance and go through Russia to Japan and try to get further. The Amshinover rebbe together with the hanhola of MIR had nothing to do with the design or execution of this project.
Lets honor the rebbe for who he was a Zaddik who acted as rebbe and father for the Polsih element in Shanghai. Ands lets honor Rav leib mallin for being the driving force behind this move.
By the way there were no Radiner or Beth Yosef (Navarhadok) bachurim in Shanghai (or a handful at most)The only yeshiva to survive in tact was DaMIR because of the reasons I stated above where the senior bachurim disobeyeed the advise of the hanhola.

Anonymous said...

I think what Amshinover means is that the Rebbe of Amshinov was a force in getting POLISH Jews to travel east.

Anonymous said...

In the beautiful book Reb Shlomo there is some information on the relationship of Shlomo to the Amshinover rebbes grandfather and grandson.
By the way the current rebbe is a Litvak as his father was a Mirer in Shanghai.
History tell us that many of the Polish Jews who fled the German zone in Poland to the Soviet zone after Sept.- Nov. 1939 made the fatal error of returning to the German zone from the Russian zone between Jan. 1940-June 1941.How tragic !