Page 15 - HaMizrachi Chanukah 2021 - USA

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1929 1933 1936 1936
The first Bnei Akiva branch opens The first AMIT school, Bet Hatzofeh, Mizrachi's official The first Camp Moshava opens
in Jerusalem; a young Rabbi Moshe Zeirot Mizrachi in Jerusalem, newspaper in the Yishuv, in Hightstown, New Jersey
Tzvi Neria joins as a madrich in 1931 opens with 24 students begins publication

source of income due to the grind-
ing poverty prevalent in the Jewish
community. Financial difficulties
compelled most parents to send their
children to tuition-free Polish public
schools, a challenge for all Jewish
private schools in interwar Poland.
Local municipalities provided limited
funding for a time, and the Joint Distri-
bution Committee was another source
of funding. JDC records illuminate the
scope of Yavneh's activities. In 1936
there were approximately 16,000 stu-
dents in over 200 schools across Poland.
The Educational Committee at the Mizrachi Conference in Staszow, Poland, January 1919.
Given its late entry into the crowded (PHOTO: YAD VASHEM PHOTO ARCHIVES)
field of Jewish education, coupled with yeshivah, Beit Shmuel. Named after the Belgium. Upon his return to Warsaw,
the financial limitations of the parent founder of the Chovevei Tzion movement he threw himself into Jewish educa-
body to pay tuition, these are impres- Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever, this was truly tion by overseeing the opening of new
sive numbers indeed. a Religious Zionist yeshivah in the full- branches of Yavneh schools around
est sense. Hachshara (preparation) for the country. At the same time, he ini-
The Yavneh network maintained
Aliyah to Palestine was a component tiated the founding of the Beit Shmuel
schools for all ages, yet two of its
of the institution's educational philos- agricultural yeshivah. As a member of
institutions for older male students
ophy and curriculum and agricultural HaPoel HaMizrachi, he was involved
stand out. The Tachkemoni Rabbinical
training and hands-on practice were in the political side of the organization
Seminary in Warsaw was seen as the
key parts of the students' training. as well.
flagship institution of the entire school
system. Although Rabbi Yitzchak Nis- One of the founders of this agricultural With the outbreak of war, the yeshivah
senbaum, the rabbinical leader of yeshivah was Warsaw native Shmuel closed and Shmuel Zanvil escaped
Mizrachi in Poland, envisioned it as an Zanvil Kahana. His father, Rabbi Europe, arriving in the Holy Land in
elite yeshivah, Mizrachi lay leaders such Shlomo David Kahana, was a member 1940. Rising through the ranks of Miz-
as Heshel Farbstein ultimately guided of the Warsaw Rabbinate for over rachi, he served as the manager of the
Tachkemoni in a different direction, four decades, known for his expertise Misrad HaDatot (Israel's Ministry of
shaping its course as a rabbinical semi- in assisting with the plight of many Religious Affairs) for twenty years -
nary that also included a strong general agunot in the wake of the First and the longest anyone has served in that
curriculum. Seen as a continuation of later Second World Wars. In his later position.
Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines' yeshivah years, he served as the last rabbi of the
in Lida, it grew significantly over the Old City's Jewish Quarter before its fall The Yavneh network laid the institu-
two decades of its existence. during the War of Independence. tional foundations for Religious Zionist
schools in the State of Israel. And while
During the 1920s, the rabbinical depart- Shmuel Zanvil's maternal grandfather most of the students ofYavneh, Tachke-
ment was headed by Rabbi Moshe and namesake was Rabbi Shmuel Zanvil moni and Beit Shmuel would fall victim
Soloveitchik, and the general studies Klepfish, who, as rabbi of Warsaw in to the fate of Polish Jewry during
department was headed by the famed 1889, had formulated the original 'heter the Holocaust, many of its surviving
Polish Jewish historian Professor mechira' for the new agricultural settle- alumni would serve in leadership posi-
Meir Balaban. While Rabbi Soloveit- ments in the Land of Israel during the tions in postwar Jewish communities
chik delivered his Talmud classes in Shemitta year. worldwide.
Yiddish, Professor Balaban lectured in
Shmuel Zanvil Kahana graduated from
Polish and most of the remainder of the
the Tachkemoni Rabbinical Seminary Rabbi Yehuda Geberer is an historian, a
classes were taught in Hebrew.
with semichah from Rabbi Moshe popular tour guide of historical Jewish sites
Another unique institution affiliated Soloveitchik. He later obtained a doc- in Europe, and the host of the Jewish History
with Yavneh was the Warsaw-based torate from the University of Liege, Soundbites podcast.

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