By Pearl Herzog
The city of Pinsk, under the sovereignty of Belarus since 1991 and devoid of Yiddishkeit for many decades, is at present experiencing a Jewish renaissance. Pinsk and its suburb Karlin once boasted dozens of shuls and shtieblach and were thriving Torah centers. For more than a century while still under the rule of the Russian czars, hundreds of thousands of poor Jews all over Russia were supported by members of a Torah-true philanthropic dynasty that made its home in Pinsk and Karlin. Several generations of the Levin family, whose descendants included Lurias, Halperns and Eliasbergs,
or the “Rothschilds of Pinsk” as they were to become known because of their generosity and askanus, continuously supported their co-religionists and established Jewish and Torah institutions. We present a glimpse into some of the personalities associated with the Rothschilds of Pinsk
Shaul Karliner Levin, Founder of the
‘Pinsk Rothschild’ Dynasty
An exceptionally wealthy businessman and talmid chacham with an outstanding yichus, Shaul Karliner (1775-1834) devoted every spare minute to learning Torah. In addition to founding the world-renowned Yeshiva of Volozhin, the precursor of today’s yeshivah movement, he founded batei medrash in both Pinsk and Karlin, where he lived. These cities evolved into great Torah centers attracting talmidim who arrived from all over Europe.
The Russian newspaper Severnaya Pachta noted that the Russian government publicly expressed its appreciation to Saul ben Moses Levin (Shaul Karliner), who succeeded in saving the Oginski Canal during Russia’s victory over Napoleon in 1812.
Despite the fact that the French had captured the area between the waterways of the Dnieper and the Neimen, Saul managed to preserve the structures of the canal. He hired watchmen to guard the dams and workers to rebuild the bridge burned by the French. He was accorded the prestigious position of “Merchant of the First Guild,” and for his act of patriotism in single-handedly provisioning a Russian fighting unit, Shaul Karliner was granted the right to wear a sword.
Shaul Karliner Levin, the founder of the “Pinsk Rothschild” dynasty, descended from noble Torah stock. His father and grandfathers all held prestigious positions as Rabbanim and avos beis din in cities like Slonim and Vilna. Shaul married
Mirka Gunzberg at the young age of 15. Their four sons and five daughters followed in their footsteps, combining philanthropy with the expansion of Torah and chessed networks.
Shaul Karliner’s wealth stemmed from a number of sources. He was the owner of many properties and large estates and traded in lumber and salt. He also owned a copper workshop and established a porcelain factory.
A legend relates that Czar Alexander I once asked Shaul Karliner to show him the sefer Torah the latter had redeemed in 1795 from a monastery. Karliner had hosted a party for noblemen at his estate in Telechany (about 35 miles from Pinsk). During the festivities, in exchange for a princely sum of money, Shaul persuaded them to return the sefer Torah, which had been stolen from the Jewish community. He was only 20 years old at the time.
Shaul played a large role in assisting the nascent Perushim settlement in Eretz Yisrael. After the Vilna Gaon had passed away, about 500 families and a few dozen bachurim, all former talmidim ofthe Gaon, endured the arduous trip in the beginning of the 19th century and settled in Yerushalayim, Tzfas, Teveria and Yafo. They had a profound spiritual effect on Eretz Yisrael and were called Perushim because they separated themselves from the indulgences of this world; their only source of sustenance was funds collected in the Diaspora.
Thanks to Shaul Karliner’s efforts on their behalf, after Vilna, Pinsk served as the second center for the collection of funds for the Perushim.
According to Mordechai Nadav, author of The Jews of Pinsk, 1580- 1880, historians have learned much about Shaul Karliner from his will, including the fact that he served as advisor for several communities in the vicinity of Pinsk. He set aside sums for Lubieszow, Stolin, Lohiszyn, Pohost Zadorodzki, Pohost Zarzeczny and Horodnik. He also left large sums of money for the Pinsk and Karlin Jewish organizations and institutions.
Shaul Karliner’s most important legacy, however, was that his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren continued in his ways and used their vast wealth not only to develop Torah institutions but also to establish hospitals, old-age homes and Jewish organizations, and to support the poor.
Second-Generation Philanthropists:
Chaya [Rokeach] Luria
The eldest child of Shaul Karliner, Chaya Luria (1791-1873), used her wealth wisely. She was twice widowed. Her first husband, Gad Asher Rokeach, was an a grandson of Rabbi Elazar Rokeach, Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam and author of Maaseh Rokeach, and the son of the Av Beis Din of Pinsk; he passed away in 1816, leaving her a
widow with a two-year-old son, Heshie, and a son born after her husband’s petirah, who was named for his father. Chaya and her second husband, Yisrael Aharon Luria, the son of Rav Isser Luria of Moghilev, had three sons, Moshe, Shmuel and
David, before he sadly passed away in 1835.
Chaya controlled the family businesses, dealing in corn, timber, fat and salt. She developed trading connections to the south and west between Ukraine and the Baltic countries and Poland. In gratitude for her contribution to the development of Pinsk as a port city, Czar Alexander II bestowed the title “Honorary Citizens of the Russian Empire” on her and her descendants. She built a number of institutions: a Talmud Torah, a shul named for herself (Chayele’s Shulchan); a hospital, together with her younger brother Moshe Yitzchak; and an old-age home in collaboration with her niece Feigel Levin, daughter of her sister Reizel.
A drought in Kovno in 1866-67 led thousands of starving Jews to abandon their homes there and stream into Pinsk, from where they planned to travel by steamboat to other destinations. To aid the thousands of unfortunate Jewish refugees traveling through her hometown, Chaya set up a large transit camp for them and
ensured they were fed and clothed. She used all her resources to assist her brethren, including arranging transportation to their final destinations in steamboats owned by her sons, Moshe and David Luria, as well as by her nephew Meir Levin, and provided the travelers with money and food for their journey.
Rabbi Heshie Rokeach, Chaya’s eldest son and an outstanding talmid chacham, married a granddaughter of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, the daughter of his son, Harav Shlomo, and headed the Talmud Torah (yeshivah) in Karlin. Chaya had two sisters: Achsah, married to Rabbi Yaakov Meir Padua, Av Beis Din of Brisk and author of
Mekor Mayim Chaim and Ketonet Passim; and Dina, who built a shul in Karlin that was called Dinale’s Shulchan.
Moshe Yitzchak Levin
A wealthy timber merchant by profession, Chaya’s younger brother, Moshe Yitzchak Levin (1802-1872), was employed as a government contractor and also traded in corn and fats. Much of what we know about him is based on an obituary that appeared in the Hebrew newspaper Hamelitz. The article, dated September 24, 1872, describes how stores throughout the predominantly Jewish city of Pinsk were closed on Monday, 6 Elul (September 9) as 20,000 Jews gathered to pay their last respects at his funeral.
Moshe Yitzchak was a philanthropist who supported thousands of Jews throughout Russia. In addition to the hospital he built with his sister, Chaya, he built a shul in Karlin that was named for him.
“A bitter cry is raised in Pinsk and a great disaster has come upon Karlin,” states the headline of the article by Nachum Meir Shaikowitz. Shaikowitz reported that the prominent physician Doctor Mehring, who was brought from Kiev to Pinsk to try to heal the philanthropist, attributed Moshe Yitzchak’s death to the fact that he would fast from morning to noon on a daily basis.
The reason for the fast, Shaikowitz claimed, was that Moshe Yitzchak would not sit down to eat until he responded to the numerous financial requests brought to him each day. Each morning upon arriving at the Karliner beis medrash that his father had built, Moshe Yitzchak would leave his hat overturned on a table so that people could place their petitions in it. After davening, he would don his hat, taking care that none of the bits of paper fell out. He would return home, respond to each petitioner, and only then allow himself to eat.
“It is no exaggeration to say,” wrote Shaikowitz, “that he was one of the noblest men … of our generation.
Death has robbed Karlin of its greatest philanthropist, the famed giver of charity, helper of the poor, and father of the wretched. … He was their father … their protector, always ready to aid them with his generosity…”
Due to his renown and great generosity, petitioners would wait on a line that would snake around the corner from the Karlin beis medrash in order to receive money for maos chittim from Moshe Yitzchak. He provided them with not only money, but wine, potatoes and food as well. Furthermore, he would send messengers to covertly bring food to those he knew were too embarrassed to wait on line and risk being seen begging in public.
Zev Wolf Levin
Zev Wolf Levin, Moshe Yitzchak’s brother (died 1870) built the beis medrash known as the Pinsk Kloiz. It was renowned as a bastion of Torah and tefillah and was frequented by many Gedolim including the Gaon Harav Elazar Moshe Hurwitz,
Av Beis Din and Chief Rabbi of Pinsk until his death in 1890, and his son-in-law, Harav Baruch Epstein, author of Torah Temimah.
Like his brother Moshe Yitzchak, Zev Wolf was also a timber merchant, a government contractor and a noted philanthropist.
Zev Wolf, though, had innovative ideas for his charitable giving. He applied to the central Russian government in St. Petersburg to purchase land to the north of Pinsk in order to found an agricultural settlement for impoverished Jews. He promised to undertake all the expenses incurred in settling Jews there.
When his request was granted, he built houses for 15 families, furnished them, purchased cattle, flocks and agricultural equipment, and provided the settlers with all their needs. Additional benefits to the settlers included exemption both from paying government taxes and having their sons serve the mandatory 25-year army service.
Third-Generation Philanthropists:
Meir Levin
Continuing his family’s legacy, Meir Levin, Moshe Yitzchak Levin’s eldest son, was a wealthy merchant who focused his efforts not only on his business, but on Torah and generous charitable endeavors. Meir was one of the first merchants in Pinsk to purchase a steamship and establish a trade route between Pinsk and Ukraine. He was a talmid chacham of note who established chadarim in Pinsk and headed the Karlin Yeshivah. He brought in melamdim from various towns
in Lithuania to teach and he also supported them. They would daven in the shul he established and they would eat shalosh seudos at his home, in addition to the Purim seudah and the seudos preceding fasts.
Meir’s business relationships enabled him to establish close connections with Russian government authorities, which he used to benefit the Jewish community. Whenever the governor would visit Pinsk he would meet with Meir Levin to discuss township matters.
Gad Asher Levin
Another link in this illustrious chain of philanthropy was Gad Asher Levin Rokeach, Chaya Luria’s son. Gad Asher, like his cousin Meir Levin, owned steamboats. The Pina and Nieman steamboat line traveled between Pinsk, Kremenchug and
other towns. He also established an old-age home in Pinsk.
Additionally, Gad Asher set up a trade school for orphans and children of the poor. He personally paid for 214 orphans to be trained to earn their living as tailors, shoemakers, carpenters and blacksmiths. He provided them with clothing for Shabbos and weekdays, and the two kopecks they needed for the bathhouse.
These students were nicknamed Gadye’s Troop and were required to attend shiurim given by a melamed whom Gad Asher compensated. They would attend Shabbos davening at Dinale’s Shulchan. Gad Asher would farher these children every Shabbos to make sure they were learning well. When the boys were old enough to begin practicing their vocations, Gad Asher gave them money to establish themselves in business.
Moshe and David Luria
Moshe Luria (1824-1906), Chaya’s eldest son by her second husband (Aharon Luria), and his brother, David,(1828-1888) developed the town’s commerce and later industrialized and westernized Pinsk. Thus Moshe was one of the most influential men in Pinsk’s history. They established an oil factory and a flour mill, which was the largest factory in Russia, producing more than 12 tons of flour daily. By 1872, seven years after the establishment of the flour mill, it was powered by a steam engine imported from Germany. Moshe also established a factory for wooden nails, the first of its kind in Russia, and in 1881, a factory to manufacture the wooden boxes that were attached to wagon wheels to keep the axles greased. He named one of his steamboats Montefiore, and when hiring employees gave preference to Talmud Torah graduates.
On Erev Shabbos, two long siren blasts would emanate from the Luria factory to usher in Shabbos. The first would signify the closingof the shops, and the second, candle-lighting time. On Shabbosos and Yamim Tovim the factory would be closed to workers, but the shul the brothers had built in the center of the factory complex would be open for services. During Yamim Nora’im, the manager and the workers would daven together in this shul.
There was an aron kodesh with a sefer Torah, and those Jews who began their daily work shift before dawn would have a special break to daven Shacharis in this shul. Before Pesach, the workers in the plywood factory would receive as gifts boards to cover their tables to render them kasher l’Pesach.
In addition to the shul within the Luria factory complex, there was another shul nearby that was called the Monastritcher Shulchan, where many of the workers would learn in the evenings. Rav Hundin, who served as the factory employees’
Dayan and Posek, lived nearby and resolved their monetary disputes, guided them and delivered shiurim on Gemara and Ein Yaakov.
In 1900, on the occasion of his diamond (60th) wedding anniversary, Moshe Luria donated 10,000 rubles toward a new building for the Karlin Talmud Torah to replace the building his mother had financed. He and his brother, David, provided free food and clothing to the Talmud Torah pupils. During a food shortage, they distributed bread to the poor every week.
Fourth-Generation
Philanthropists:
Halperns and Rabinoviches
Gad Asher Rokeach Levin did not have sons. His daughter Baila was married to Yosef Halpern, who purchased and expanded a match factory that employed close to 500 people, 90 percent of whom were Jews. It was the second-largest factory in Russia.
Yosef Halpern headed the Somech Noflim charitable society in Karlin, providing aid to people who had lost their money and needed financial support to enable them to keep their businesses going. He was also one of the directors of the Karlin
Hospital established by Chaya Luria.
Shmuel Rabinovich, the second son-in-law of Gad Asher, was one of the owners of the Karlin candle factory, which employed 120 workers, almost all of them Jews.
The name Eliasberg appears prominently among the Levin– Luria dynasty. According to Dr. Zev Wolf Rabinovich, who wrote extensively about the Pinsk “Rothschilds,” there were at least nine marriage connections between the Luria and Eliasberg families.
Moshe and David Luria were married to two daughters of Shmuel Eliasberg, Miriam Leah and Rushe, respectively. Their brother Eliyahu Eliasberg married Zelda, Moshe Luria’s daughter.
• • •
Eliyau Eliasaberg was the last member of the Eliasberg family to bear the title “Gabbai of the Volozhin Yeshiva.” The Volozhin Yeshivah is no more. The Pinsk Rothschilds are gone. May the tremendous Torah that emanated from Volozhin be eternally associated with the Torah philanthropic family — the Rothschilds of Pinsk.
Inyan Magazine of HaModia, May 13, 2015, 24 Iyar 5775