Avraham Kalmanowitz
| Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz | |
|---|---|
| Rosh Yeshivas Mir | |
| Position | Rosh yeshiva |
| Yeshiva | Mir yeshiva, Brooklyn, New York |
| Began | 1946 |
| Ended | 1964 |
| Other |
|
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Avraham Kalmanowitz |
| Born | March 8, 1887 Dzialiacičy, Minsk province, Belarus |
| Died | 15 February 1964 (aged 76) Miami Beach, Florida |
| Buried | Sanhedria Cemetery, Jerusalem |
| Denomination | Orthodox |
| Parents | Rabbi Aharon Aryeh Leib and Maita Kalmanowitz |
| Children |
|
| Alma mater | Slabodka yeshiva |
Avraham Kalmanowitz (also Abraham; Hebrew: אברהם קלמנוביץ; March 8, 1887 – 15 February 1964) was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva of the Mir yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York from 1946 to 1964. Born in Belarus, he served as Rav of several Eastern European Jewish communities and escaped to the United States in 1940 following the German occupation of Poland. In the U.S. he became a tireless rescue activist on behalf of the millions of Jews trapped in Nazi Europe and in the Soviet Union. He is credited with the successful transfer of the entire Mir yeshiva from Lithuania to Shanghai, providing for its support for five years, and obtaining visas and travel fare to bring all 250 students and faculty to America after World War II. He established the U.S. branch of the Mir in 1946. In the 1950s he aided North African and Syrian Jewish youth suffering from persecution and pogroms, and successfully lobbied for the passage of a bill granting "endangered refugee status" to Jewish emigrants from Arab lands.
He was born in the shtetl of Delyatichi (Dzialiacičy), Minsk province, Belarus, to Rabbi Aharon Aryeh Leib and Maita Kalmanowitz. His father was a Talmid Chacham and Rav of several European Jewish communities. His father exerted a major influence on his education. He studied at the Telshe yeshiva in Lithuania, and at age 16 entered the Eishishok yeshiva headed by Rabbi Zundel Hutner. At age 18, he progressed to the Slabodka yeshiva, where the Alter of Slabodka, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, arranged for him to learn in chavrusa with his own son, Rabbi Moshe Finkel. Kalmanowitz received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein of Slabodka, Rabbi Raphael Shapiro of Volozhin, Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz of Minsk, and Rabbi Eliyahu Baruch Kamai of the Mir.
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