Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz
Chaim Leib Halevi Shmuelevitz, (; 1902–1979) — also spelled Shmulevitz — was a member of the faculty of the Mir Yeshiva (Poland), Mirrer Yeshiva for more than 40 years, in Poland, Shanghai and Jerusalem, serving as Rosh yeshiva during its sojourn in Shanghai from 1941 to 1947, and again in the Mir yeshiva (Jerusalem), Mirrer Yeshiva in Jerusalem from 1965 to 1979. He taught, guided, and inspired thousands of disciples throughout his lifetime, by word and deed, with legendary diligence and intensity in Torah study. Early years Shmuelevitz was born on the second day of Rosh Hashana 5663 (3 October 1902) in Kovno, Lithuania, to Rabbi Refoel Alter Shmuelevitz and Ettel (née Horowitz), a daughter of Rabbi Yosef Yozel Horwitz, known as the Alter of Novardok yeshiva, Novhardok. In Shmuelevitz's youth, his family moved to Shchuchyn, Stutchin. Until the age of 16, he was educated by his father, who was one of the leading yeshiva lecturers in Lithuania. In 1919 Refoel Alter, who ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a in the Duchy of Trakai of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Trakai Voivodeship, Trakai Palatinate since 1413. In the Russian Empire, it was the capital of the Kovno Governorate, Kaunas Governorate from 1843 to 1915. During the interwar period, it served as the temporary capital of Lithuania, when Vilnius was Polish–Lithuanian War, seized and controlled by Second Polish Republic, Poland between 1920 and 1939. During that period Kaunas was celebrated for its rich cultural and academic life, fashion, construction of countless Art Deco and Lithuanian National Revival architectural-style buildings as well as popular furniture, interior design of the time, and a widespread café culture. The city in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Shimon Shkop
Shimon Yehuda Shkop (; 1860 – October 22, 1939) was Rosh Yeshiva (dean) of the Yeshiva of Telshe, and later of Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah of Grodno. Having innovated a style of Torah study, applying both to Halacha and to Talmud, he was widely regarded as a major Talmid Chacham (Talmudic scholar). Biography Early life Shkop was born in Torez, today in Ukraine, in 1860. At the age of twelve he went to study in the Mir Yeshiva for two years. He then traveled to the Volozhin yeshiva where he studied under Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, "Netziv", for six years. His study partners included Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Shkop also joined the ''chaburah'' of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, "Chaim Brisker", analyzing the ''gemara'' using what would come to be called the " Brisker derech"; he was thus among the first students exposed to the new approach. Telz and Grodno Shkop married a niece of Eliezer Gordon, and in 1884 was appointed a rosh mesivta at Telz Yeshiva, where he remained for 18 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Chiune Sugihara
was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory, risking his career and the lives of his family. The fleeing Jews were refugees from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania. Lithuania declared the year 2020 as "The Year of Chiune Sugihara" in his honor. Today, the estimated number of descendants of those who received "Sugihara visas" ranges between 40,000 and 100,000. In 2021 a street in Jerusalem was dedicated in his honor. Early life and education Chiune Sugihara was born on 1 January 1900 ( Meiji 33), in Mino, Gifu prefecture, to a middle-class father, , and an upper-middle class mother, . When he was born, his father worked at a tax office in Kozuchi-town and his family lived in a borrowed temple, with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Visa (document)
A visa (; also known as visa stamp) is a conditional authorization granted by a polity to a foreigner that allows them to enter, remain within, or leave its territory. Visas typically include limits on the duration of the foreigner's stay, areas within the country they may enter, the dates they may enter, the number of permitted visits, or if the individual can work in the country in question. Visas are associated with the request for permission to enter a territory and thus are, in most countries, distinct from actual formal permission for an alien (law), alien to enter and remain in the country. In each instance, a visa is subject to border control at the time of actual entry and can be revoked at any time. Visa evidence most commonly takes the form of a sticker endorsed in the applicant's passport or other travel document but may also exist electronically. Some countries no longer issue physical visa evidence, instead recording details only in border security databases. Some ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products in society based on need.: "One widespread distinction was that socialism socialised production only while communism socialised production and consumption." A communist society entails the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the State (polity), state. Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a Libertarian socialism, libertarian socialist approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and an authoritarian socialism, authoritarian socialist, vanguardis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population was 607,667, and the Vilnius urban area (which extends beyond the city limits) has an estimated population of 747,864. Vilnius is notable for the architecture of its Vilnius Old Town, Old Town, considered one of Europe's largest and best-preserved old towns. The city was declared a World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The architectural style known as Vilnian Baroque is named after the city, which is farthest to the east among Baroque architecture, Baroque cities and the largest such city north of the Alps. The city was noted for its #Demographics, multicultural population during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with contemporary sources comparing it to Babylon. Before World War II and The Holocaust in Lithuania, th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Mir, Belarus
Mir (; ; ) is an List of urban-type settlements in Belarus, urban-type settlement in Karelichy District, Grodno Region, Belarus. It is situated on the banks of Miranka River, about southwest of the capital, Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 2,248. History Mir village was founded sometime prior to 1345. It is home to Mir Castle Complex, a late medieval castle, which made the town the target of many attacks over the centuries. The town belonged to the Illinič family (Korczak coat of arms) first and then to the Radziwiłł family. It was destroyed by the Swedish forces in 1655 (Deluge (history), Deluge) and again by the Swedes during the Great Northern War in 1706. In 1792, the Lithuanian division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth army under Józef Judycki was routed by the invading Imperial Russian army corps under Boris Mellin (see Battle of Mir (1792), Battle of Mir). During the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in 1812, Russian Imperial cavalry, artillery and cossack ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish culture, Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews. The Talmud includes the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis on a variety of subjects, including halakha, Jewish ethics, Jewish philosophy, philosophy, Jewish customs, customs, Jewish history, history, and Jewish folklore, folklore, and many other topics. The Talmud is a commentary on the Mishnah. This text is made up of 63 Masekhet, tractates, each covering one subject area. The language of the Talmud is Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. Talmudic tradition emerged and was compiled between the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the Arab conquest in the early seve ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Hanukkah
Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from November 28 to December 27 in the Gregorian calendar. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabra, candelabrum with nine Branch, branches, commonly called a Hanukkah menorah, menorah or hanukkiah. One branch is placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the ''gabbai, shammash'' (, "attendant"). Each night, one additional candle is lit by the ''shammash'' until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival. Other Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah musi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |