From Tea to Torah: The Unsung Heroes Behind Ponevezh Yeshiva

It was the year 1911 in the city of Ponevezh. The city's rabbi, Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Rabinowitz, was beaming. His meeting the previous year in Moscow with Mrs. Liba Gavronsky had borne fruit: she had approved a very generous monthly budget to support a group of young Torah scholars in his city. He wrote to his friend, Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Karp, the rabbi of Plungė: "I wish to inform you that, thank God, I succeeded during my recent visit to Moscow in founding the institution I had envisioned for some time, aided by the donation of Mrs. Gavronsky, daughter of Vysotsky, to sustain twelve students in Ponevezh, each receiving 15 rubles a month, and eight married scholars, each receiving 30 rubles a month. The funds will be sent by her every month. With God’s help, the initiative will begin immediately after Passover. For now, I'm asking you to find appropriate candidates who are talented and God-fearing."

Thus, Rabbi Yitzchak Rabinowitz, affectionately known as Rabbi Itzele Ponevezher, managed with much effort to establish a "group" where twelve scholars and eight students would gather! But there were not enough worthy candidates in his city, so he sought them from other towns.

Famous yeshivas we know today were often named after their towns of origin. These weren’t large institutions by number, but many illuminated the entire Torah world, though they were situated in remote places. Radin Yeshiva, led by Rabbi Naftali Trop and the revered Chofetz Chaim, was located in a distant, small village. Ponevezh, unlike some, wasn't a village but the fifth largest city in Lithuania. It sat along the route between Riga and Vilnius and was considered quite central. Ponevezh had a commercial station on the railway crossing the country. Jews had arrived there about a century earlier, and by this time, several thousand Jews lived there, yet there weren't twenty scholars worthy of full-time Torah study.

Just as there weren't many students and scholars, there weren’t many willing to donate their wealth for Torah study. Who was Mrs. Liba Gavronsky, whose heart moved her to give such a large sum?

She was the daughter of Kalonymus Wolf Vysotsky, the famous tea magnate from Moscow, known as "Russia's Tea King." Vysotsky was a learned Lithuanian scholar, having studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva and been a disciple of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, the founder of the Musar movement. The rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Yaakov Mazeh, wrote of him: "He was a student and protégé of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, who influenced him so decisively that he truly became a practitioner of Musar in every sense."

In the late 19th century, Vysotsky recognized tea's commercial potential and established a high-quality branded tea empire that took the world by storm. By 1903, Vysotsky controlled 35% of Russia's tea trade. He was bestowed the title "Honorary Citizen of Russia" and became the tea supplier to the Czar. In 1907, a large branch opened in London, and in 1935 – in Tel Aviv. Rabbi Mazeh recounted: "Several times, when his health was already failing, I asked him why he worked so hard and exhausted himself with tea matters. He replied that this is what he learned from the yeshiva of his supreme teacher Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, that a person is obligated to work until their last breath."

Over time, the entire company moved to Israel and now provides 78% of Israel's tea consumption. Kalonymus Vysotsky certainly had his merits, and likely business acumen, as his company has remained at the top for over 130 years. In his will, Vysotsky bequeathed a million rubles to charity, with the rest going to his daughters and sons-in-law. He wrote, "Know, my children, that my intent in my extensive labors was not only to amass wealth, but also so that I might do good for others from my bounty. And I would not boast with a false gift if I tell you – and you know it – that I sowed for charity as much as my hand could, and I did everything in my power to do."

Part of his legacy was supporting Torah, a trait he passed down to his daughters. One of them was Liba Gavronsky, who dedicated enormous sums to supporting Torah learners, leading to the establishment of the "group" in Ponevezh.

After World War I, Rabbi Yitzchak of Ponevezh passed away. By 1920, Ponevezh was home to 8,000 Jews, and Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman established the "Ohel Yitzchak" Yeshiva, named after Rabbi Yitzchak of Ponevezh. Rabbi Kahaneman was one of the "Council of Lithuanian Rabbis," which numbered 171 rabbis.

During the Holocaust, most of Ponevezh's Jews perished, except for seventy who managed to survive, including Rabbi Kahaneman, the only surviving member of the "Council of Lithuanian Rabbis." He immigrated to the Land of Israel and, on the advice of the Chazon Ish, established the Ponevezh Yeshiva there, which became one of the largest and most influential yeshivas in Israel, and to a certain extent, also thanks to the Vysotsky family, who founded the first Torah nucleus in Ponevezh.