Moshe Yechiel Epstein (29 December 1889 - 27 January 1971) was the Ozharover

Rebbe A Rebbe ( yi, רבי, translit=rebe) or Admor ( he, אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spiritua ...

, and an

Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...

recipient in the category of

Rabbinical literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writ ...

in 1968.

Background

Rabbi Moshe Yechiel Epstein first came to America in 1920 as part of a delegation from Agudas Yisroel, to raise money to help the

Jewish refugees This article lists expulsions, refugee crises and other forms of displacement that have affected Jews. Timeline The following is a list of Jewish expulsions and events that prompted significant streams of Jewish refugees. Assyrian captivity ; ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, which had been a major battleground between the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

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, and

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. While gone, Rabbi Moshe Yechiel's brother started to "fir rabbanus" in Ozherov, and made himself popular. When he returned and saw that people really liked his brother, he decided not to make a controversy, and took over as rabbi of the smaller Polish town of Otwock.

Polish antisemitism

Shortly thereafter, Rabbi Moshe Yechiel was traveling on a train when a Polish man started up with him and spit on him. Rabbi Moshe Yechiel had been offered to be the

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

of a

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

for Ozerov immigrants on the

Lower East Side of Manhattan The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal Street (Manhattan), Canal to Houston Stre ...

, and this incident—indicative of the treatment of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

by the Polish people—was the impetus for him to apply to immigrate to the United States. After being rejected a first time, he was granted permission the second time and moved his

Hasidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

court to

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in 1926. Rabbi Moshe Yechiel spent several years in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and then moved to

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

Holocaust

Rabbi Moshe Yechiel's entire family in Europe was wiped out in

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the remnants of the chasidim of

Chentshin Chentshin is the name of a Polish Hasidic dynasty founded by the Rebbe Chayim Shmuel Szternfeld. Chentshin is the Yiddish name of Chęciny, a town in present-day Poland. Rebbe Szternfeld was a great-grandson of the Chozeh of Lublin. He was known ...

were left leaderless, their rebbe having been killed by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. They adopted the Ozherover Rebbe, a grandson of the first Chentshiner Rebbe, as their leader. Rabbi Moshe Yechiel was therefore given the title

Grand Rabbi Chief Rabbi ( he, רב ראשי ''Rav Rashi'') is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a ...

of Ozherov-Chentshin. Excited by the new state of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, Rabbi Moshe Yechiel moved to

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

in 1952, where he spent the rest of his life.

Torah scholar

Rabbi Moshe Yechiel was known as one of the great Torah scholars of his generation. His encyclopedic series of

Torah commentaries Jewish commentaries on the Bible are List of biblical commentaries, biblical commentaries of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) from a Jewish perspective. Translations into Aramaic language, Aramaic and English, and some universally accepted Jewish comm ...

entitled ''Eish Dos'' (11 volumes) and ''Be'er Moshe'' (12 volumes) are renowned for their depth. They were considered to be just a small sample of the Rebbe's erudition. Rabbi Moshe Yechiel died in 1971, and was succeeded by his grandson, Grand Rabbi Tanchum Becker (son of Rabbi Moshe Yechiel's daughter, Rebbetzin Miriam Becker and Rabbi Dovid Eliyahu Becker, a

rav ''Rav'' (or ''Rab,'' Modern Hebrew: ) is the Hebrew generic term for a person who teaches Torah; a Jewish spiritual guide; or a rabbi. For example, Pirkei Avot (1:6) states that: The term ''rav'' is also Hebrew for ''rabbi''. (For a more nuan ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, Wisconsin), the present Rebbe of Ozerov-Chentshin, who was trained by his grandfather to succeed him. Grand Rabbi Becker presently resides with his family in

Bnei Brak Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq ( he, בְּנֵי בְּרַק ) is a city located on the central Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean Israeli coastal plain, coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an are ...

, where he leads the Ozerov Torah Center, comprising a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

, a ''

kollel A kollel ( he, כולל, , , a "gathering" or "collection" f scholars is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim (lectures) and learning ''sedarim'' (sessions); ...

'' for married Talmudic scholars, and the Ozerover Beis Medrash.

References

{{authority control Talmudists 1889 births 1971 deaths Hasidic rebbes Polish Hasidic rabbis American Hasidic rabbis Hasidic rabbis in Israel People from Tel Aviv