Shlomo Chanoch Rabinowicz

Keser Torah yeshiva network

World War I uprooted hundreds of thousands of Jews and decimated established communities. Traditionally, Hasidic youth had learned Torah from their elders and picked up the customs and lore of their Hasidic groups in the shtiebelach of Poland and Galicia. Now the Radomsker Rebbe proposed a new method of Hasidic education. On Lag B'Omer 1926, he announced his plan to establish a network of yeshivas called Keser Torah (Crown of Torah). Soon after, eight yeshivas were opened in Będzin, Podgórze, Chrzanów, Wolbrom, Oświęcim, Częstochowa, Łódź and Kraków. Each yeshiva had its own rosh yeshiva and initially studied its own Talmudic tractate; later, all the yeshivas studied the same tractate at the same time. The Rebbe paid for the entire operation, including staff salaries, food, and student lodging, out of his own pocket. The Rebbe eventually escaped to Alexander, but from there was most likely sent by the Nazis into the Warsaw Ghetto. Rabinowicz was registered as a worker in the Shultz factory. Notwithstanding the danger, he refused to shave off his beard.

The Rebbe's son-in-law, Rabbi David Moshe Rabinowicz, gave regular shiurim (lectures) in the Warsaw Ghetto, and also composed many chiddushim (novel Torah thoughts) which his students recorded. All of these chiddushim as well as the sefarim he had written previously were lost in the war.

Death and legacy

Rabinowicz and all the members of his family, including his only daughter, son-in-law, and their infant son, were murdered by the Nazis on 1 August 1942. When the Nazis stormed his house to deport its residents to the Chelmno extermination camp, Rabinowicz refused to leave, saying, "I know you've come to kill me. I prefer to die here in my house and not in a car filled with poison gas". He then recited the Shema ("Hear, Jewish people, the Lord our God, the Lord is one") and was shot in the head when he reached the last word, Echad (One). His family members were shot together with him.

In 1965 Menachem Shlomo Bornsztain of Sochatchov (whose grandfather, the second Sochatchover rebbe, Shmuel Bornsztain, married the granddaughter of the first Radomsker rebbe, Shlomo Rabinowicz) ) become the Radomsker rebbe as well and was known as the Sochatchover-Radomsker rebbe.

Rabinowicz's teachings and those of his son-in-law, David Moshe Rabinowicz, were compiled in the book Shivchei Kohen ("Praises of the Priest").

Rebbes of Radomsk Shlomo Hakohen Rabinowicz, the Tiferes Shlomo (1801–1866) Avraham Yissachar Dov Hakohen Rabinowicz, the Chesed LeAvraham (1843–1892) Yechezkel Hakohen Rabinowicz, the Kenesses Yechezkel (1862–1910) Shlomo Chanoch Hakohen Rabinowicz, the Shivchei Kohen (1882–1942) Menachem Shlomo Bornsztain, Sochatchover-Radomsker Rebbe (1934–1969)