Aryeh Levin

Rabbi Aryeh Levin, (Hebrew: אריה לוין‎; March 22, 1885 - March 28, 1969), known as Reb Aryeh, was an Orthodox rabbi dubbed the "Father of Prisoners" for his visits to members of the Jewish underground imprisoned in the Central Prison of Jerusalem in the Russian Compound during the British Mandate. He was also known as the "Tzadik ("saint") of Jerusalem" for his work on behalf of the poor and the sick.

Reb Aryeh was born near the village of Orla, near Białystok, Russian Empire (now Poland) to Binyamin Beinish and Ethel Levin. He had two older sisters, Miriam and Faige. From his father, Aryeh acquired a love of Torah learning. He was tutored by local teachers until the age of 12, and then left home to attend the great yeshivas of Slonim, Slutsk, Volozhin and Brisk.

In 1931, at the request of the British Mandate, Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook appointed Reb Aryeh Levin the official Jewish Prison Chaplain, a position he informally had filled since 1927. He accepted on the condition that he receive no pay. He would walk from his home in Nachlaot to visit the Jewish prisoners held in the Russian Compound on charges of arms possession or smuggling. Most of the prisoners were members of the Palmach, Haganah, Irgun or Lehi. Levin prayed with the prisoners and conveyed messages to their families. Room 29 in the Central Prison in Jerusalem (now the Museum of the Underground Prisoners), was used as a synagogue on Shabbat and holidays. The inmates were captivated by the rabbi's warmth and sincerity, and the honor and respect with which he treated them. Mattityahu Shmuelevitz, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, wrote in a letter to a friend: “Yet there is one person in particular to whom I remain grateful first and foremost; a dear, precious Jew about whom you told me nothing; but it was he who stormed heaven and earth for me; and more important — it was he who brought me closer to my Maker in those fateful days... He left and we remained in the prison. He couldn’t take us with him out into the free world, but he always brought the outside world in to us.”

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