Rabbi Abraham Kalmanowitz To Joseph Hyman, Jdc Executive Director — Avraham Kalmanowitz, Shraga Moshe Kalmanowitz's Brother And Rabbi Of The Mir Yeshiva In Brooklyn, New York From 1946 To 1964

Rabbi Abraham Kalmanowitz to Joseph Hyman, JDC Executive Director


Avraham Kalmanowitz, Shraga Moshe Kalmanowitz's Brother And Rabbi Of The Mir Yeshiva In Brooklyn, New York From 1946 To 1964

Avraham Kalmanowitz (1887-1964) was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, renowned for his heroic rescue efforts during WWII, saving hundreds of students from Nazi Europe and establishing a thriving yeshiva community in America. A tireless advocate for Jewish refugees.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives (New York City, United States of America)

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Rabbi Kalmanowitz, President of the Mirer Yeshiva, which originated in Mir, Poland, penned this letter thanking Joseph C. Hyman, Executive Director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), for his role in the escape of 300 scholars from the Mirrer Yeshiva in Vilna. During 1940-41, thousands of Polish Jewish refugees in Lithuania, among them the rabbis and student bodies of entire yeshivas, fled eastward across Siberia to Japan. After Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into World War II, JDC assisted the refugees to move from Kobe, Japan to other temporary or permanent haven such as Shanghai. JDC subsidized their travel expenses