Rabbi Wasserman Visits America
When there was not enough money to buy food for the yeshiva students, Rabbi Wasserman traveled to America to raise money for the yeshiva. Rabbi Wasserman made an impression on many young Jews that he met while in the United States. Rabbi Wasserman returned to Poland although he knew his life was in danger by returning. This was partly because he did not want to abandon his students, and partly because he took a dim view of American Jewry. In 1939, just before the Nazi invasion, he even forbade his students from accepting visas to the United States to study at Yeshiva University and what is now the Hebrew Theological College due to what he perceived as a spiritually dangerous atmosphere in these two institutions.
Rabbi Wasserman had several sons. Rabbi Simcha Wasserman served as Dean of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah in Detroit in the 1940s, founded Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in California in the 1950s, and later founded Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon in Jerusalem. Rabbi Wasserman's other sons were Naftoli and Dovid.
When World War II broke out Rabbi Wasserman fled to Vilna, Lithuania, and in 1941, while on a visit to Kovno, was arrested by the Nazis with twelve other rabbis and sent to his death.
Read more about this topic: Elchonon Wasserman
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