Funeral services were held here today for Rabbi Abraham Kalmanowitz, head of the world-renowned Mirrer Yeshiva, who died in Miami Beach this weekend at the age of 73. The body was flown after the services to Israel for interment.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Rabbi Kalmanowitz moved the famed yeshiva from Mir in Lithuania to Shanghai and after the war to the United States. While he was active during the war in bringing many Jewish leaders, students and rabbinic scholars to the United States, his major undertaking was the massive relocation of the yeshiva which involved a trek of 16, 000 miles from Lithuania to Shanghai. In the course of his activities, he met President Franklin Delano Roosevelt several times.
The original group of 600 teachers and students of the yeshiva had grown to 3, 000 with the addition of other refugees during the long journey to Kobe, Japan. In Japan, the yeshiva was re-established under the eyes of suspicious Japanese officials but after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it was moved to Shanghai where it remained for the duration of the war.
In spite of wartime difficulties, Rabbi Kalmanowitz continued to send the group financial aid through neutral governments. While in Shanghai, the scholars not only continued their studies but managed to print some 38,000 copies of books on improvised printing presses made from stones. After the war, Rabbi Kaimanowitz brought the yeshiva over to this country where it has flourished during the past two decades.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
