Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz
| Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Position | Rosh yeshiva |
| Yeshiva | Yeshivas Ponovezh L’Tzeirim |
| Began | 1954 |
| Ended | 2010 |
| Other | Maggid shiur, Yeshivas Tiferes Tzion, 1940–2011 |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz |
| Born | 1913 Volozhin |
| Died | 27 June 2011 (aged 97–98) Jerusalem |
| Buried | 28 June 2011, Bnei Brak |
| Denomination | Haredi |
| Residence | Bnei Brak |
| Parents | Moshe Dovid and Chaya Lefkowitz |
| Spouse | Chava Esther Gershonowitz |
| Children | Moshe Dovid Avraham Yitzchak daughter (died in infancy) |
| Occupation | Rosh yeshiva, maggid shiur |
| Alma mater | Hebron Yeshiva |
Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz (1913 – 27 June 2011) was a respected Haredi Lithuanian Torah leader and rosh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel, for over 70 years. He was a maggid shiur at Yeshivas Tiferes Tzion from 1940 to 2011 and rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ponovezh L’Tzeirim from 1954 to 2009, raising thousands of students. He was a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah, a member of Mifal HaShas, and nasi (president) of the Acheinu kiruv organization, and played a leading role in the fight for Torah-true education in yeshivas and Talmud Torahs in Israel. In addition to his own Torah works, he published the teachings of his rebbi, Rabbi Shlomo Heiman, in the two-volume Chiddushei Shlomo.
He was born in Valozhyn, Russian Empire (now Belarus) in 1913 to Moshe Dovid and Chaya Lefkowitz. This was the second marriage for both his parents. His father was almost 80 years old when he was born. The family lived in great poverty. Moshe Dovid had children from a previous marriage who lived in America; they would send their father three rubles (the equivalent of one dollar) each month. Lefkowitz would use two of the rubles to pay for a melamed for Michel Yehuda, and the other ruble to support the family. Chaya Lefkowitz's son and daughter from a previous marriage lived in Palestine.
At age 12 Michel Yehuda began learning in a yeshiva ketana (the equivalent of high school) in the town of Rakov, boarding with his uncle. He marked his bar mitzvah there in 1929 without his parents. A few years later, he journeyed to Vilna in order to be treated by an eye specialist, and joined the yeshiva in Rameilles under Rabbi Shlomo Heiman. While there, in 1932, his father died.
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