Elazar Shach - Escaping To The British Mandate of Palestine

Escaping To The British Mandate of Palestine

Shortly before the start of World War II and the Holocaust, several yeshivas began considering evacuating their rabbis, students and families. Kotler eventually left for America, traveling across Siberia and arriving in the United States during the war. In 1939 Shach first went to Vilna, where he stayed with Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Later that year both Shach's mother and his eldest daughter fell ill and died. In early 1940 the Shach family decided to leave Lithuania. Shach's maternal uncle, Rabbi Aron Levitan, had helped Kotler get emigration visas, but Shach, after consulting with Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik and Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, decided instead to go to Palestine, where Meltzer was serving as Rosh Yeshiva at Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem, (Shach would later serve as the Rosh Yeshiva there as well). His uncle helped him and his family get immigration certificates and took them in after they arrived at his doorstep, destitute.

Several years after the re-establishment of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, he was asked to be one of its deans. He served in that capacity until his death. At this yeshiva, Shach taught thousands of students, some of whom eventually assumed prominent positions as rosh yeshivas and rabbis in both Israel and abroad.