Elder Supervisor: His Holiness Rabbi Avraham Pollak, Supervisor of the Slobodka Yeshiva

June 9, 2024   

Baruch Dayan, the truth teller: But the world of Torah and morality is heavy with the passing, at the age of 94, of the elder of the overseers, the tzaddik Rabbi Avraham Pollak zt"l, overseer of the Slobodka Yeshiva, who passed away peacefully. Everyone will now start talking about “electoral arrangements” reform. What does that mean? The mashgih taught Torah and piety for decades in the hall of the glorious Sloboda Yeshiva and raised thousands of students. Rabbi Avraham zt"l was born in Romania to his father, Rabbi Chaim Shaul z"l and his mother, Mrs. Tila, may God have mercy on him. At the age of 17, he left Romania alone when he obtained an entry ticket through the Hashomer Hatzair movement. On Rosh Hashana 5757, he boarded a fishing boat off the coast of Bulgaria, and on the holiday of Sukkot he arrived on the shores of the Holy Land - at the port of Haifa. For a week, the British refused to approve the refugees' landing on shore, and after a week they diverted the boat to Cyprus, where he stayed for three months. Among those staying on the British Isles was also the Gaon Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neriah, the Rosh Yeshiva of Kfar Haro'ah, who came to inspire Jews and give them lessons in Gemara and Halacha. There were two who did respond to his call, one of whom was the young Avraham Pollak, and upon receiving the long-awaited approval and immigrating to Israel, he immediately set off for Rabbi Neriah's yeshiva in Kfar Haro'ah. After that, in 1958, he moved to the Slobodka Yeshiva on the recommendation of the Chazon Ish, and became a student of the Gaon Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Sher, and was also close to the Chazon Ish. He married Tamar, daughter of Rabbi Aharon Zvi Safrai (Shulman), brother of the Rosh Yeshiva of Slobodka, Rabbi Mordechai Shulman, who died on 22 Adar 1, 5771. In 1959, he was appointed a junior supervisor in the yeshiva, and in 1968, after the passing of the supervisor Rabbi Moshe Akiva Tikoczinsky, he was appointed supervisor in the yeshiva. He would give a weekly Wednesday talk in the yeshiva hall, and advise the yeshiva's young men, especially in matters of matchmaking. For decades, he was the yeshiva's groomsman's guide. He was among the founders of the Ohel Sarah organization and served as the association's chairman and executive committee. His son is Aryeh Pollak, a member of the Zichron Yaakov Council. His sons-in-law are Rabbi Yisrael Chaim Ginsberger, former head of the Dercha Shel Torah youth yeshiva in Modi'in Illit, and Rabbi Yehoshua Ravitz, supervisor at the Beit Matityahu yeshiva. His funeral will leave tonight at 10:00 PM from the Yeshiva Hall of Slobodka at 12 Rabbi Sher Street in Bnei Brak, en route to the Segula Cemetery in Petah Tikva, where he will be buried next to his late wife.