Rebuilding after the War: DP Camps and New Yeshivot
Survivors searched for one another in the displaced persons camps, married, had children and rebuilt yeshivot—in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem and Lakewood.
After May 5705 roughly a quarter of a million Jewish refugees were left in Europe with nowhere to return to. They were housed in displaced persons camps—Landsberg, Föhrenwald, Bergen-Belsen. Something strange and powerful happened there: people who had just come out of the death camps posted lists of names on walls, searched for relatives, and married at an extraordinary rate. In 5707 Belsen had the highest birth rate in the world. Schools opened, Yiddish newspapers appeared, and in Munich the 'Survivors' Talmud' was printed—a complete Babylonian Talmud for people who had no books left at all.
A new centre of Torah was built at the same time. Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman of Ponevezh, who had lost his family and all his students in Lithuania, came to Bnei Brak and in 5704 opened the Ponevezh yeshiva on a bare hill; asked why build when there is no one left to study, he answered, 'I am not burying, I am building.' Rabbi Aharon Kotler founded a yeshiva in Lakewood, New Jersey in 5703 with fourteen students; today thousands learn there. The Chazon Ish became the leading halakhic authority of the Land of Israel.
Within one generation the number of Torah students exceeded the prewar figure.
How we know
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- “Mishnat Rabbi Aharon” — the teaching of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, the builder of Lakewood
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- the Chazon Ish, Sheviit — shemitah and the new questions of a revived Land
Documents of the period
- the Joint Distribution Committee archives — the displaced persons camps and the relief given to survivors
- the Survivors’ Talmud, Munich 5708–5710 — the Talmud printed with the support of the US Army
Basis: tradition.
People and places
Chazon Ish · Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn · the Lubavitcher Rebbe · Rabbi Moshe Feinstein · Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach · Rabbi Shach · Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik · Elie Wiesel · Auschwitz · New York · Hasidism · Mussar · Acharonim · Bnei Brak · Rabbi Aharon Kotler · Mir · Slabodka · Telz · Ujhely and Satmar · Rabbi Dessler · The Klausenberger Rebbe—Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam · Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky · Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner · The Steipler—Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky · Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin · Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz · Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe · The Griz—Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rov · Rav Shmuel Wosner—Shevet ha-Levi · Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer—Even ha-Ezel · Rav Mordechai Gifter · Rav Moshe Shapiro · Rav Yechezkel Levenstein · Rav Eliyahu Lopian · Rav Yechezkel Sarna · Rav Yitzchak Yaakov Weiss—Minchat Yitzchak · Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman · Rav Yisrael Zev Gustman · Rav Avraham Pam · Baltimore · Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg · Rav Shmuel Rozovsky · Rav Chaim Friedlander—Sifsei Chaim · Rav Gershon Liebman · Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel—rosh yeshiva of the Mir in Jerusalem · Rav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz · Ponevezh · Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Friedman of Boyan · Birkas Avraham—Rabbi Avraham Weinberg the Third of Slonim · Nesivos Shalom—Rabbi Shalom Noach Berezovsky of Slonim · Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Twersky of Skver · Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu Taub of Modzitz—the Imrei Eish · Rabbi Yisrael Dan Taub of Modzitz—the Nachalas Dan · Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam of Bobov, the Third · Rabbi Naftali Halberstam of Bobov · Knesses Mordechai—Rabbi Mordechai Shalom Yosef Friedman of Sadigura · Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Friedman the Third of Sadigura · Rabbi Yisrael Moshe Friedman of Sadigura · Rabbi Yerachmiel Yehuda Meir Kalish of Amshinov