Moshe Mordechai Epstein - The Frank Sisters

The Frank Sisters

Perhaps one of the most influential and illustrious Torah families of that era was that of Rabbi Shraga Feivel Frank, a wealthy fur merchant in Kovno, Lithuania, and a devoted follower of Torah and mussar. Rabbi Frank, who died of pneumonia at the age of 43, left four daughters yet unmarried, and in his will, he asked that his wife, Golda, marry off each daughter to a young man who showed the signs of becoming a "gadol b'yisrael" -- a true leader of the Jewish people, a colossus of Torah in its knowledge, thought, diligence, commitment, and values. Rebbetzin Frank took this mission very seriously, and she investigated every candidate thoroughly.

In the end, Rabbi Frank's prayer was realized. His sons-in-law became the pillars of Torah Jewry through the next generation, and its guides after the ashes of the Holocaust. When the European strongholds of Torah were replanted in America and Israel, it was the sons-in-law and grandsons of Rabbi Shraga Frank who cultivated it. These four leaders were Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer of Slabodka and Kletzk, Rabbi Boruch Horowitz of Slabodka, Rabbi Sheftel Kramer of Slutzk and later New Haven, Connecticut; and Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein.