Switzerland – Loss To Klal Yisroel: HaGaon Rav Kopelman Zt’l Passes Away at 106

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    Switzerland – Klal Yisroel just suffered a major loss, Maran HaGaon Rav Yitzchak Dov Koppelman, one of the most outstanding Rabbonim of our generation, and one of the oldest Roshei Yeshivah, the Rosh Yeshivah of Lucerne, Switzerland passed away at the age of 106, at the home of his daughter in Zurich, where he was surrounded by his family and his close talmid Rav Yisroel Duvid Shlesinger from Monsey, NY.

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    Born in the Kharov, Ukraine in 1905, Rabbi Koppelman held the distinction of not only being the oldest living Rosh Yeshiva of our time, but also as being someone who was beloved and respected by all. Not one to be involved in politics, R’ Koppelman was concerned only with disseminating the light of Torah everywhere he went. People all over the world responded to this venerable tzaddik with love and warmth, rushing to hear the pearls of wisdom that were his divrei Torah and shmuzen.

    R’ Koppelman opened his first yeshiva in Heida before World War II and was a talmid muvhak of R’ Shimon Shkop at the famed Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah in Grodno, where he learned for eighteen years. In addition to transcribing many of the Rosh Yeshiva’s shmuzen, R’ Kopelman saved many of R’ Shkop’s manuscripts from invading Nazi armies by hiding them in a concealed pocket in his coat until after the war. These Talmudic writings were the basis of the volume Chiddushim of Rav Shimon Yehuda HaKohen, a sefer that is used in yeshivos to this day.

    After enduring five years of hard labor in Siberia during World War II, R’ Koppelman set to work reigniting the flames of Torah and in 1946 he established Yeshiva Eitz Chaim in Kapellen, Belgium. Together with R’ Chaim Yaakov Rottenberg, he traveled to Prague where he assembled a core group of approximately ten talmidim and brought them back to the yeshiva. In time, many other refugees from all over Europe joined the ranks of those who were learning in Kapellen. In later years the yeshiva moved and is presently located in Wilrijk, a suburb of Antwerp.

    After spending more than ten years in Belgium, R’ Koppelman moved to New York where he founded Yeshiva Shaarei Yosher in Williamsburg, currently located in Borough Park. The yeshiva is named after the well known sefer by the same name written by R’ Shimon Shkop.

    In 1948, R’ Koppelman took over as Rosh Yeshiva for R’ Moshe Soleveichik at the yeshiva in Lucerne, Switzerland, which had been founded as a retreat from the outside world, enabling students would be able to focus solely on their learning. Sixty three years later, third generation talmidim return to the same beis medrash in Lucerne that their grandfathers once attended, still hearing shiur from the same Rosh Yeshiva. The yeshiva boasts talmidim of all types, from all over the world, including Europe, North America, Australia and Israel.

    R’ Koppelman was close to the Satmar Rebbe, R’ Yoel Teitelbaum, zt’l and it is difficult to comprehend how a person who lived at a time when he had the zechus of being able to hear the Chofetz Chaim in person, was still vibrant enough to travel as recently as six weeks ago, when R’ Koppelman paid a visit to New York.

    His last visit to New York, six weeks ago

    The Luzeren Yeshiva


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    24 Comments
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    mtl514
    mtl514
    12 years ago

    burich dayan emes

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    12 years ago

    BDE….there are a dwindling number of these pre-War alte rabbonim left and we are losing them quickly. There are few left who of his madregah to plead the case for klal yisroel with the ebeshter.

    akraus88
    akraus88
    12 years ago

    BDE. I knew him well, was a big tzadik and a great loss to klal yisroel.

    Anon Ibid Opcit
    Anon Ibid Opcit
    12 years ago

    He lived a rewarding life full of accomplishment, piety, service and respect. Let us be thankful that after spending a lifetime and a half he may rest from his labors and begin his studies again under the best of teachers.

    12 years ago

    He was so far from our dor, we can’t understand the loss. A link in the chain of mesoras hatorah.
    He saw reshonim kemalochim.

    MosheM
    MosheM
    12 years ago

    BDH

    Babishka
    Member
    Babishka
    12 years ago

    BD”E he had amazing arichus yomim, no doubt in the zechus of bringing so many Yidden to Torah. ZT”L.

    reder
    reder
    12 years ago

    BDE: Rav Kopelman a”h (I can’t believe that I am writing this) was an amazing human being: a tzadik; a talmid chochom second to none, and most of all – the most compassionate father-figure any man (or woman) could imagine.
    Long after his talmidim left the Yeshiva their kesher with him just grew stronger. They realized that they had the privilege of having learned with a unique tzadik of whom there were very few.
    Our family was very close to him and had the opportunity to spend much time with him.
    He was a litvak who was also the Divrei Yoel’s chosid. It was the Satmarer Rebbe (zt”l) who told him to open a yeshiva in W’msbg (Shaarei Yosher.)
    Although he was 106 years old, in reality he was ageless. His memory, his mind, his koach hadibur did not wane. When he was here on Pesach he still gave a powerful shiur of over an hour and a half.
    What a loss to us, to his talmidim, and most of all – to Klal Yisroel!!

    RebSimcha
    RebSimcha
    12 years ago

    Bd”h! Evel Gudol Layehudim!

    Insider
    Insider
    12 years ago

    BDE. He was THE oldest. That means that he TAUGHT the longest. Thousands and thousands of Talmidim through the years. A great zechus. A great man. We are lucky that we lived in his generation. I was a Talmid on 14th Avenue and 41st Street. That was fifty (50) years ago. Chaval Al D’avdan.

    omglol
    omglol
    12 years ago

    BD”E its very sad.

    12 years ago

    BD’E.
    He should keep davening for us in shomayim tzi dem reboine shel oilem.
    Mir hobben neitig a yeshua altz zol zaig git!

    elivp
    elivp
    12 years ago

    Levaya in yeshivas Mir on Sunday night   7:30 PM

    sigeteinikel
    sigeteinikel
    12 years ago

    raw kopelman szl took over the lead of the yeshiva in lucerne in 1963 (ellul 5723) from raw moshe solowiejczyk szl. he served in this position for nearly 48 years, after having been rosh yeshiva in belgium and brooklyn for 17 years.

    12 years ago

    Thank you Hashem Yisborach for giving Klal Yisrael such a great great person. We are heart broken to see him go to the world of Emes since of what he did here.

    Bigboy
    Bigboy
    12 years ago

    Bd”e, it’s so sad and shocking that I doesn’t even go in to my mind!

    12 years ago

    Whenever he was in America, he kept Shabbos, according to the European time-zone, because, that was his home.
    He argued, that the real way would be, to follow the time-zone of Yirusholaim, because that is where the Shechinah keeps Shabbos.

    12 years ago

    Having had the Zechus to learn in Lucerne yeshiweh in 1956, the Rosh Yeshiwe was Harav Moshe Soloweitchik Zatza”l, so Rav Kopelman Zatza”l only became Rosh yeshiweh in about 1958 and not 1948.

    iphone
    iphone
    12 years ago

    Baruch Dayan Emet. I am so sorry to hear this devastating news.