Mir yeshiva (Brooklyn)

This article concerns the post-war Mirrer yeshiva in Brooklyn. For the pre-war Mirrer yeshiva in Poland, see Mir yeshiva (Poland) and for its sister campus, see Mir yeshiva (Jerusalem).

The Mir yeshiva (Hebrew: ישיבת מיר‎, Yeshivas Mir), commonly known as the Mirrer Yeshiva or The Mir, is officially registered with the College Board as the Mirrer Yeshiva Central Institute. It is a prominent, Haredi yeshiva located in Brooklyn, New York known for its excellence in talmudic studies.

Its long-time Rosh Yeshiva was Rabbi Shmuel Berenbaum, who died on January 6, 2008. Rabbi Berenbaum was a son-in-law of the founder of the Brooklyn branch of the Mir Yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz. Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement praising Berenbaum, noting that he built the Jewish academy "into one of the largest centers for Torah study in the world." Steven Bayme, national director of contemporary Jewish life at the American Jewish Congress said the yeshiva helped preserve "a world that was otherwise lost."

History

See also Mir Yeshiva (Poland)

The original Mirrer Yeshiva was founded in 1815, in Mir, Belarus, and remained in operation there until 1914. With the outbreak of World War I, the yeshiva moved to Poltava, Ukraine, under the leadership of Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, son of the legendary Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (the Alter of Slabodka), and son-in-law of Rabbi Elya Boruch Kamai, his renowned predecessor. In 1921, the yeshiva moved back to its original facilities in Mir, where it remained until Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 marking the beginning of the Holocaust. Although many of the foreign-born students left when the Soviet army invaded from the east, the yeshiva continued to operate, albeit on a reduced scale, until the approaching Nazi armies caused the leaders of the yeshiva to move the entire yeshiva community to Keidan, Lithuania. As the Nazi armies continued to push to the east, the yeshiva as a whole eventually fled across Siberia by train to the Far East, and finally reopened in Kobe, Japan in 1941. Several smaller yeshivos managed to escape alongside the Mir, and, despite the difficulties involved, the overseers of the Mirrer yeshiva undertook full responsibility for their support, distributing funds and securing quarters and food for all the students. A short time later, the yeshiva relocated again, to (Japanese-controlled) Shanghai, China, where they remained until the end of World War II. The heroism of the Japanese consul-general in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, who issued several thousand transit visas to Jews, permitting them to travel in order to flee to Japan, has been the subject of several books.

Following the end of the war, the majority of the Jewish refugees from Shanghai ghetto left for Mandate Palestine and the United States. Among them were the survivors from the Mir Yeshiva, who re-established the yeshiva, this time with two campuses, one in Jerusalem, Israel and this one in Brooklyn, New York.

Faculty

Rabbi Osher Dov Berenbaum (son of Rav Shmuel Berenbaum zt"l) Rabbi Elya Brudny (son of Rav Shmuel Brudny zt"l) Rabbi Ezriel Erlanger (mashgiach, son-in-law of Rav Shlomo Wolbe zt"l of Jerusalem) Rabbi Eliezer Ginsburg, Rosh Kollel (who is also the Rav of the Agudas Yisroel shul, snif Zichron Shmuel) - (grandson of Rav Yechezkel Levenstein zt"l) Rabbi Osher Eliyahu Kalmanowitz (son of Rav Shraga Moshe Kalmanowitz zt"l) Rabbi Herschel Kaminsky (son-in-law of Rav Shmuel Berenbaum zt"l) Rabbi Dovid Kviat zt"l - author of the Sukkas Dovid series on the Talmud. Rabbi Avrohom Nelkenbaum - (brother-in-law of Rav Shraga Moshe Kalmanowitz zt"l). Also the posek for the yeshiva Rabbi Reuven Schepansky (son-in-law of Rav Shmuel Berenbaum zt"l) Rabbi Herschel Zolty (son-in-law of Rav Shraga Moshe Kalmanowitz zt"l) Prominent alumni Rabbi Samuel Belkin Rabbi Abba Berman Rabbi Zvi Block Rabbi Zev "Velvel" Gordon Rabbi Lazar Gulkowitsch Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz Rabbi Meir Kahane Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan Rabbi Yisrael Mendel Kaplan Rabbi Moshe Kaplan Rabbi Dovid Kronglass Rabbi Yaakov Luban Rabbi Herman N. Neuberger Rabbi Pesach Stein Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman References Toldot Yeshivat Mir, Zinowitz, M., Tel Aviv, 1981. External links Reeva Kimble's "Brief History of the Jews of Mir" 40°36′18″N 73°57′59″W / 40.60503°N 73.966389°W / 40.60503; -73.966389Coordinates: 40°36′18″N 73°57′59″W / 40.60503°N 73.966389°W / 40.60503; -73.966389