Mir Yeshiva (Belarus) - Kobe

Kobe

As the German army continued to push to the east, the yeshiva as a whole eventually fled across Siberia by train to the Far East, en route to the USA. The yeshiva reopened in Kobe, Japan in March 1941.

While the Yeshiva was in Kobe, a controversy arose as to when to observe the Sabbath. The opinions of the Chazon Ish and Rav Yechiel Michel Tokachinsky were solicited. Ultimately, the students refrained from biblical Sabbath violations on two days, but kept it completely on only one of the days.

Several smaller yeshivas managed to escape alongside the Mirrer Yeshiva and, despite the difficulties involved, the leaders of the yeshiva undertook full responsibility for their support, distributing funds (mostly received from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) and securing quarters and food for all the students. The heroism of the Japanese consul-general in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, who issued several thousand travel visas to Jews, permitting them to flee to the east, has been the subject of several books.