Rabbi Shimon Sholom Kalish of Amshinov and Otwock רבי שמעון שלום קאליש מאמשינוב
rebbe of the Amshinov house in Otwock; through the war he was with the refugees in Vilna, Japan and Shanghai
The younger son of Rabbi Menachem of Amshinov. After his father's death in 1917 he settled in Otwock, and the Amshinov house went from there in a second branch; he led the court there some thirty years. He was married to the daughter of his uncle, Rabbi Yeshayahu Kalish of Pshischa. In 1934 he travelled to Erets Yisrael.
In the autumn of 1939 he left Poland for Vilna, from there to Kovno, and in 1941, together with the yeshivas of Mir, Kletzk, Radin and Novardok, reached Kobe. From there the Japanese moved the refugees to Shanghai, and there he was with them through the war. Chasidic tradition passes on his answer at a meeting with the Japanese authorities, who asked why the Germans hate the Jews: 'Because we are Asians, as you are.'
At the end of 1947 he came to America and settled in Borough Park. He died on 19 Av 1954 in New York; later he was brought to Tiberias.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The tradition of the rabbis' meeting with the Japanese authorities — his answer to the question about the German hatred
Scholarship
- The account of the yeshivas' flight through Lithuania and Japan to Shanghai — the refugees' road: Vilna, Kovno, Kobe, Shanghai
- Hebrew reference works on the Amshinov court — the dates 1883-1954 and the thirty years of the court in Otwock
Basis: documents and evidence.