Rabbi Avraham and Shraga Moshe Kalmanowitz graves

Shraga Moshe Kalmanowitz (; May 15, 1918 – April 16, 1998) was a Polish-American

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

rabbi. He was a

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...

(dean) of the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York , from 1964 to 1998.

Biography

Kalmanowitz was born in Rakov, Poland, to Avraham Kalmanowitz, the rabbi of the town, and Rochel Cohen, the daughter of Betzalel Hakohen, a dayan (rabbinical court judge) in

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. He had the brothers and two sisters. At the age of 10, Kalmanowitz began studying at the Mir yeshiva in

Mir, Belarus Mir (; ; ) is an List of urban-type settlements in Belarus, urban-type settlement in Karelichy District, Grodno Region, Belarus. It is situated on the banks of Miranka River, about southwest of the capital, Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population ...

, and later studied at the Kaminetz Yeshiva led by Baruch Ber Leibowitz. He came to the United States with his mother and siblings in 1941 (his father had immigrated a year earlier) and studied at both

Yeshiva Torah Vodaas Yeshiva Torah Vodaas (or Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Vodaath or Yeshiva Torah Vodaath or Torah Vodaath Rabbinical Seminary) is a ''yeshiva'' in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. History The yeshiva was conceived in 1917 and formal ...

and Beth Medrash Elyon. After his marriage, Kalmanowitz became a maggid shiur in the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn. Upon the death of his father in 1964, he and his brother-in-law, Shmuel Berenbaum, assumed the roles of roshei yeshiva. He followed his father's lead in overseeing the education of

Sephardi Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

North African students at the Mir Yeshiva. He was also close with Sephardi organizations in New York City; he was one of the speakers at the grand opening of the

mikveh A mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvot'', or (Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazic) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion, ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve Tumah and taharah, ...

of the Sephardi Brooklyn community on Avenue S. Kalmanowitz died on April 16, 1998 (20

Nisan Nisan (or Nissan; from ) in the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars is the month of the barley ripening and first month of spring. The name of the month is an Akkadian language borrowing, although it ultimately originates in Sumerian ''nisag' ...

5758) in New York. He was buried beside his father's grave in the

Sanhedria Cemetery Sanhedria Cemetery () is a 27-dunam (6.67-acre) Jewish burial ground in the Sanhedria neighborhood of Jerusalem, adjacent to the intersection of Levi Eshkol Boulevard, Shmuel HaNavi Street, and Bar-Ilan Street. Unlike the Mount of Olives and ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. His wife Malka Kalmanowitz died in 2020.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalmanowitz, Shraga Moshe 1918 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American rabbis American Haredi rabbis Mir rosh yeshivas Orthodox rabbis from New York City Religious leaders from Brooklyn Polish emigrants to the United States