Chaim Yaakov Stein (March 29, 1913 - June 29, 2011) is best known for leading the Telshe Yeshiva at two times in its history: Cleveland and Wickliffe.^[1]

Early life

Chaim Yaakov Stein was born to Binyamin Moshe and Miriam Stein in the Lithuanian hamlet of Skudvil,^[2][3] where he received his rabbinical ordination from a major Jewish school located in the area, Telshe Yeshiva.

The War Years

During World War II he was with those students who fled the Yeshiva, and spent time in labor camps in Siberia.^[1] In October 1940, a group of students led by Rabbi Stein escaped from war-ravaged Lithuania as it was overrun by the Nazis. This daring flight took place on the Sabbath. While travel is ordinarily prohibited on the Sabbath, one must transgress this prohibition in order to save lives and escape great peril. The original faculty, their families, and most of the student body who chose to be left behind in Europe were killed in Lithuania by Nazi forces and Lithuanian collaborators.

Escaping to Russia as the war-ravaged Eastern Europe, another war was taking place in the Pacific - the very direction that the students led by Rabbi Chaim Stein were headed. The students achieved safe passage via the Trans-Siberian Railroad to the Far East. The group had somehow acquired visas from the renowned Chiune Sugihara, and became beneficiaries of his admirable action to risk his life to enable people from war-torn Europe to seek refuge elsewhere in the world.

Shortly after, the students traveled to Australia. Since some of the students were British subjects in possession of British passports, such as Rabbi Shlomo Davis, their visas were granted.

Upon arrival in Australia, they were greeted by the small but vibrant Jewish community in Brisbane. As they planned out their next course of action, the group of students reached out to improve the Jewish quality of life in the local Jewish community. Among this group was Rabbi Chaim Stein, who later became Rosh Yeshiva in Wickliffe, Ohio, Rabbi Shlomo Davis who became a teacher and later a senior administrator for the student's registrar, and Rabbi Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, who later became mashgiach ruchani of Beth Medrash Gevoha in Lakewood, New Jersey.

This group found its way to the United States in early 1941.^[4] Once reunited with their Roshei Yeshiva, Rabbi Elya Meir Bloch, and Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz, they eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio.^[4]

Insight

To a student who later self-described as "attitude that I had just to ask a question for the sake of asking” Stein said "You are working hard not to understand – you have got to work hard to understand."^[5]

End of life

He outlived his wife, the former Friedel Zaks (daughter of Rav Moshe Yehudah Leib Zaks, a brilliant Rav in Russia^[5]) and was survived by four of their five children:^[1] two sons, Rav Shmuel Zalman Stein, a Rosh Yeshiva in Yeshiva Birchas Chaim in Lakewood, and Rav Binyomin Moshe Stein who lives in Wickliffe, Ohio and two married daughters.^[5]

A son predeceased Stein.

The New York Times article^[6] that quoted by name only one Maspid for R' Moshe who, they said was "expressing the sorrow heard in eulogy after eulogy" with Stein's wording: "We are all orphans, we have no father."

One decades-long student said "To many, Rav Chaim was like a father. To many Rav Chaim was like a zaida."^[7] Stein died "just four days after the Petira of Hagon Rav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, and less than two weeks after the Petira of Hagon Rav Yitzchok Dov Koppelman ZATZAL."^[8] Other reports repeated this observation.

The next chance for a followup, "seven and a half years" after his 2005 public reading of "Whoever learns the laws every day is assured that he is destined for the world to come" at the Daf Yomi Siyum HaShas was described as "We will return to you, and you will return to us."^[9]

References