Shlomo Harkavy

Rabbi Shlomo Harkavy
Harkavy with his wife and children
Personal life
Born	c. 1890 Grodno, Russian Empire present-day Belarus
Died	c. 1942 Vilnius, Nazi occupied Lithuania present-day Republic of Lithuania
Spouse	Freida Baila Harkavy (née Gringas)
Religious life
Religion	Judaism
Denomination	Orthodox Judaism

Shlomo Harkavy (c. 1890 – c. 1942), also known as Rav Shlomo Grodner, was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Grodno, Poland. He served as mashgiach ruchani of the Grodno Yeshiva under Shimon Shkop, until he was murdered the Holocaust.

Biography

Early life

Shlomo Harkavy was born c. 1890 in Grodno, Russian Empire (present-day Belarus).^{[citation needed]} He studied at the Radin Yeshiva, where Yeruchom Levovitz served as mashgiach,^[1] and in 1908, when Levovitz was appointed mashgiach of the Mir Yeshiva, a number of his students from Radin transferred to Mir with him, Harkavy included. He stayed in the Mir for several years before going to learn in the Kelm Talmud Torah. He later married Freida Baila Gringas of Kremenchug.^{[citation needed]}

Rabbinic career

In the early 1920s, Harkavy was appointed mashgiach ruchani at Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah in Grodno, where Shimon Shkop served as rosh yeshiva. As part of his role as mashgiach ruchani, he was supposed to give his students mussar (rebuke) when they did something wrong. He did this in a unique way. As opposed to confronting a student and rebuking him for a specific act, he would instead discuss that type of wrongdoing with somebody else, in earshot of the student.^[2]

The Holocaust

At the outbreak of World War II and the Soviet takeover of Poland, many yeshivas fled to Vilna, the Grodno Yeshiva included. While the rosh yeshiva Shkop was not up to journey, Harkavy joined his students and escaped to Vilna. After the Nazi invasion of Lithuania, the Jews of Vilna were rounded up into two ghettos, where many Jews were killed or deported to Nazi concentration camps; both ghettos were later liquidated by the Nazis.^[3] Harkavy was murdered around that time. He was the last mashgiach of the Grodno Yeshiva in Europe.^[4]

References

1. "Rav Yerucham Levovitz zt"l on his 81st Yahrtzeit". theyeshivaworld.com. Yeshiva World News. 12 June 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2020. Rav Yerucham then joined the Chofetz Chaim's Kollel Kodshim in Radin. Soon, in 1903, he was appointed the Mashgiach of the yeshiva in Radin
2. Page, David (January 2017). "Yeshiva Years in Grodno". Rav Gustman (First ed.). Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, Ltd. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-4226-1859-2. R' Shlomo Harkavy, the Mashgiach in Grodno, gave Yisrael Zev mussar in the Gradno style, by speaking not to Yisrael Zev directly , but rather in front of him.
3. "VILNA". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
4. "Rabbi's Message: In This Corner" (PDF). Congregation Ohel Moshe Bulletin (407). Retrieved 25 August 2020. The last Menahel Ruchani of the famed Yeshiva of Grodna in Europe, who perished in the Holocaust, Rav Shlomo Harkavy, may his blood be avenged....