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Doing the Impossible: The Inspiring Life Story of One of the Greatest Rabbis of the 20th Century
Rabbi Meir Shapiro in the Yeshiva Library, which he built. Photo: provided.
Rabbi Yehuda Meir Shapiro was born in Shatz, Poland, on March 3, 1887. He was a descendant of renowned Chassidic Rebbes on both sides of his family. Although he initially had difficulty learning to read, he began to excel once he was taught to read words rather than letters. With his incredible memory and depth of understanding, he was soon renowned for his genius.
His mother, Rebbetzin Margulya, devoted herself to helping her son become a Torah scholar. Every single day, she would remind him that a day without learning Torah is a day that is lacking. Rabbi Shapiro described that shortly before they moved to a new city, his mother was concerned that her son would be unable to learn Torah on the day of the move.
Despite the natural stresses involved in moving, his Torah learning remained a priority. She decided to contact the teacher in the new city to ask him to meet them at the city entrance and learn Torah with her son as soon as they arrived. However, upon their arrival, he was nowhere to be found. Rebbetzin Margulya sat down near their wagon and cried. Her son tried to calm her down and said, “Mommy, don’t cry – I’ll learn tomorrow!” His mother responded, “Meir’el, you don’t yet realize what it means to miss a day of studying Torah!”
Those words, coming from the depths of his mother’s heart, would resonate for Rabbi Shapiro throughout his life and may have inspired the Daf Yomi movement he created.
Recognizing His Role
In 1906, when he was 19, Rabbi Shapiro married the daughter of Yaakov Dovid Brightman, a wealthy Jew from Tarnopol, which was a center of Torah learning in Galicia. Upon his arrival in Tarnopol, Rabbi Shapiro became a close follower of Rav Yisroel of Chortkov and remained a Chortkover Chassid all his life.
In fact, the Chortkover Rebbe helped create the mechanech and gadol Rabbi Shapiro would eventually become. Rabbi Shapiro once asked his teacher if he should become a chazzan since he had a beautiful voice. Recognizing Rabbi Shapiro’s greatness, the Chorkover Rebbe told Rabbi Shapiro that his mission was to teach and spread Torah by educating the next generation of the Jewish people.
Rabbi Shapiro’s father-in-law had committed to providing financial support so his son-in-law could study Torah for his entire life. Yet, Rabbi Shapiro decided to study full-time only until he felt ready to become a community rabbi.
At the age of 23, Rabbi Shapiro became the rabbi of a city called Galina. His mother-in-law was devastated and felt his greatness would now be compromised. She brought 20,000 gold coins to him and placed them before him, saying, “This is yours. You don’t need to go.” He responded gently, “If 20,000 gold coins would change my mind, then you are right. I should not go into the Rabbinate.” But it didn’t change his mind, and he would soon make his mark in Poland’s Jewish community, and eventually on the entire world.
A Member of the Polish Parliament
In 1922, elections were held for the Polish Parliament, the Sejm — and 35 Jews were elected, making them over 10% of the Polish Parliament. Out of the 35 elected, six were members of Agudas Yisroel, including Rabbi Meir Shapiro.
He was one of the youngest members of Parliament, yet he took on the role of defender of the Jewish people in the face of open antisemitism.
Rabbi Shapiro was renowned as a gifted speaker, although he was initially limited by his lack of fluency in Polish. Within a short time, he mastered that and was so eloquent that even his enemies would come to listen to him speak.
A member of the Sejm, intending to insult the Jews, commented that a sign in a park in Silesia prohibited Jews and dogs from entering it. Rabbi Shapiro responded with his sharp wit, “Then neither one of us can enter that park.” Rabbi Shapiro’s political career continued until 1928, when he left politics to have more time to focus on the Jewish community.
Daf Yomi
At the age of 36, Rabbi Shapiro introduced his idea for Daf Yomi at the First Knessiah Gedolah of Agudas Yisroel in Vienna on August 16, 1923. There was overwhelming approval for this idea, and the first cycle of Daf Yomi commenced on the first day of Rosh Hashanah in 1923.
The Gerrer Rebbe, who had the largest Chassidus in Poland at that time, helped give Daf Yomi a strong start by publicly studying the first page of Daf Yomi with his Chassidim following the Rosh Hashana davening.
The first Siyum Hashas was celebrated in 1931 in Lublin, with Rabbi Shapiro in attendance.
Poland’s Yeshiva: Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin
A second significant accomplishment of Rabbi Shapiro was the creation of a new model for yeshivas with the founding of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin in 1930.
He felt that it was crucial to emphasize the importance of Torah study by establishing an institution with a respectable building, regular meals, a dorm, and a high level of study.
Until this point, yeshiva bachurim would often sleep in shuls and receive meals by eating in community members’ houses on a rotation basis. Rabbi Shapiro had shared the idea for this yeshiva at the same Knessiah Gedolah at which he had initiated Daf Yomi. He suggested that Jews set aside a small coin every time they studied the Daf, and in this way, every Jew could have a portion in “their Yeshiva.”
He named the yeshiva “Chachmei Lublin” after the “wise men of Lublin” who had lived in generations past, including Rabbi Shlomo Shachna, the Maharam of Lublin, the Rema, the Maharshal, and the Chozeh of Lublin.
Rabbi Shapiro built a magnificent building on a piece of land generously donated by a wealthy Jew in Lublin, Rabbi Shmuel Eichenbaum. The impressive structure was built with funds raised worldwide and still stands today. It was taken over during the Nazi occupation and then was used by the Medical University of Lublin for many years after the Holocaust. In 2003, it was finally returned to the Jewish community of Lublin.
The opening of the yeshiva in June of 1930 was celebrated with nearly 100,000 Jews arriving from all over to participate. In addition to a dining room and dormitory, the building housed a magnificent library with over 30,000 volumes
Rabbi Shapiro also commissioned Rabbi Chanoch Weintraub to create a breathtaking and detailed replica model of the Bais Hamikdash (Temple in Jerusalem) housed in a special room in the yeshiva.
Applying to the yeshiva was challenging, to say the least. To even be considered for acceptance, one had to know at least 200 pages of Gemara by heart. The yeshiva’s learning was on a very high level, and the students it produced were tremendous talmidei chachamim.
“Never Laugh at a Child’s Dream”
Rabbi Shapiro once was traveling and met a man who introduced himself as Rabbi Yaakov Halberstam. He explained that he was a son-in-law of the Shatzer Rebbe, a rabbi in Rabbi Shapiro’s hometown of Shatz. After greeting him, Rabbi Shapiro asked Rabbi Halberstam if his wife had accompanied him on the trip. Surprised, Rabbi Halberstam answered in the affirmative. Rabbi Shapiro asked to speak to her.
When the rebbetzin came over, Rabbi Shapiro asked if she remembered them playing together as young children, and the rebbetzin said she did. Rabbi Shapiro then said, “You might also remember that I was enamored with the idea of creating a program through which Jews all over the world would learn the same page of Gemara every day … and maybe you also remember how the children would make fun of me and my dream?”
The rebbetzin nodded.
“I want you to know,” Rabbi Shapiro continued, “that the laughter almost dissuaded me from bringing this idea to reality, but I decided to try to do it anyway. Always remember,” he concluded, “Never laugh at a child’s dream.”
Final Days
Rabbi Shapiro died suddenly after a short illness when he was only 46. His death was a severe blow to Polish Jewry, for whom he was both a caring leader and an inspiring visionary.
My late grandmother, who lived in Poland then, told me, “When Rabbi Shapiro passed away, all of Poland went into mourning.”
He was buried in Lublin, and his was the only grave remaining when the Holocaust ended. In 1958, under the guidance of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisroel, his body was reinterred in Jerusalem in the Har Hamenuchot cemetery.
Although he had no children, his legacy would be his “son,” Daf Yomi, and his “daughter,” Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin.
A Final Story – The Eternal Jewish People
With over three million Yiddish-speaking Jews in Poland before the Holocaust, there were various publications to cater to its populace. The two most well-known newspapers were Heint and Moment, both of which were secular. At the time, frum Jews printed their own newspaper called Der Yid (the Jew).
Rabbi Shapiro once passed a newsstand and asked to purchase a copy of Der Yid. The storekeeper nonchalantly asked him why he would buy Der Yid, instead of the more sophisticated Heint or Moment, pointing out that Der Yid was on the bottom of the pile.
Rabbi Shapiro responded with a smile. “Heint means today, and Moment means a minute. Both will soon disappear. I am choosing Der Yid, because even if he is downtrodden, a Yid is a Jew, and a Jew is eternal.”
Rabbi Menachem Levine is the CEO of JDBY-YTT, the largest Jewish school in the Midwest. He served as Rabbi of Congregation Am Echad in San Jose, CA, from 2007 to 2020. He is a popular speaker and writes for numerous publications on Torah, Jewish History, and Contemporary Jewish Topics. Rabbi Levine’s personal website is https://thinktorah.org A version of this article was originally published in Hamodia’s Inyan Magazine.
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With the last hostage released, is American Jewish unity over?
When the remains of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza returned to Israel this week, Scott Spindel, a lawyer in Encino, Calif., finally took off the thick steel dog tag he had put on after the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
His friend Lauren Krieger, an orthopedic surgeon, did the same. And he pulled down the last of the names of the hostages remaining in Gaza that his wife, Jenn Roth Krieger, had placed in the window of their Santa Monica home.
During the nearly 28 months that Israeli hostages remained in captivity in Gaza, Krieger, 61, and Spindel, 55, consistently argued over Israel’s war in the strip.
“Lauren would say that we probably were a little too extreme,” Spindel, whose daughter serves in the IDF, told me in a telephone interview. “I don’t think we blew up enough buildings.”
But those differences paled beside their mutual concern over the fate of the hostages.
“Unfortunately,” said Spindel, “it took tragedy to pull us together.”
So it was across the American Jewish landscape. Then, the body of Staff Sergeant Ran Gvili, the 24-year-old Israeli police officer killed on Oct. 7 and taken by Hamas terrorists back into the enclave, was returned to Israel — the last of the hostages to come home.
Jews from across the political spectrum unpinned yellow ribbon buttons from their lapels, removed the hostage posters from their synagogues, and folded up and put away the blue-and-white flags displayed as a symbol of the missing Israelis.
The marches and vigils American Jews held on behalf of the hostages — small but meaningful echoes of the mass rallies that roiled Israel — came to a quiet halt.
Jewish unity is forged in adversity. Without it, we are apt to find enemies among ourselves. And as painful as the hostage saga was, it unified an otherwise fractious American Jewish community in a time of crisis.
Without that common concern, are even deeper rifts our future?
“As committed and connected as we were,” said Spindel, “it doesn’t change the fact that we also were still divided about solutions.”
A family in distress
Across the United States, synagogues of all religious and political bents regularly joined in the same Acheinu prayer for the release and return of the hostages.
“Our family, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress,” the prayer begins — a wholly accurate summation of the totality of Jewish concern.
Surveys showed that the hostages unified American Jews even when Israel’s Gaza campaign divided them. An October 2025 Washington Post poll found that a plurality of American Jews disapproved of Israel’s military actions in Gaza — but a whopping 79% said they were “very concerned” about the hostages.
There have been other moments in recent Jewish history when calamity created unity. The 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, for instance, brought together the vast majority of American Jews in mourning, even those who opposed his policies.
And, of course the brutal Oct. 7 attack, which claimed almost 1,200 lives, created a near-universal sense of shock and sorrow.
But the hostage crisis may have had an even deeper emotional — and perhaps political — impact.
“Even for people who were not affiliated Jewishly, those hostages struck a deep, deep chord,” Krieger told me. “It felt personal. I don’t think we’ve had that level of collective trauma in our lifetimes in that same way.”
And a family divided
The hostage crisis bonded American Jews to one another, and to their Israeli counterparts, at a time when enormous political rifts were opening within their communities.
In the U.S., as in Israel, there were sharp disagreements over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war and whether he was even prioritizing the hostages’ safety.
And the encampments and protests against the war at college campuses — in which many Jewish students participated, and to which many others objected — created even deeper divisions over support for the Jewish state.
But if the hostage issue didn’t erase such differences, it muted them. Krieger and Spindel could frustrate each other in conversations about the conduct of the war, or American support for it. But in the end, they were both in that 79% that the Washington Post poll identified.
What will hold them — and the rest of us — together, now?
The hostage crisis provided something history unfortunately bestows upon Jews with regularity: an external enemy that transcended ideological differences. With it gone, American Jews return to what they’ve always been — a community bound by tradition, and riven by politics.
Krieger and Spindel have already resumed their arguments. But even though the dog tags are gone, they’re both still wearing Jewish stars on silver chains around their necks. When someone admires Krieger’s, he takes it off and gives it to them. He buys his metal stars in bulk on Amazon, and has given away dozens since Oct. 7.
“I want people to feel like I do,” he said, “like we’re a peoplehood worth cherishing.”
Worth cherishing — even though we can’t agree on much else.
The post With the last hostage released, is American Jewish unity over? appeared first on The Forward.
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Iran President Says Trump, Netanyahu, Europe Stirred Tensions in Protests
Amnesty International Greek activists and Iranians living in Athens hold candles and placards in front of the Greek Parliament to support the people of Iran, in Athens, Greece, January 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that US, Israeli and European leaders had exploited Iran’s economic problems, incited unrest and provided people with the means to “tear the nation apart” in recent protests.
The two-week long nationwide protests, which began in late December over an economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and rising living costs, have abated after a bloody crackdown by the clerical authorities that US-based rights group HRANA says has killed at least 6,563, including 6,170 protesters and 214 security forces.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told CNN Turk that 3,100, including 2,000 security forces, had been killed.
The US, Israeli and European leaders tried to “provoke, create division, and supplied resources, drawing some innocent people into this movement,” Pezeshkian said in a live state TV broadcast.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced support for the demonstrators, saying the US was prepared to take action if Iran continued to kill protesters. US officials said on Friday that Trump was reviewing his options but had not decided whether to strike Iran.
Israel’s Ynet news website said on Friday that a US Navy destroyer had docked at the Israeli port of Eilat.
Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Europeans “rode on our problems, provoked, and were seeking — and still seek — to fragment society,” said Pezeshkian.
“They brought them into the streets and wanted, as they said, to tear this country apart, to sow conflict and hatred among the people and create division,” Pezeshkian said.
“Everyone knows that the issue was not just a social protest,” he added.
Regional allies including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have been engaging in diplomatic efforts to prevent a military confrontation between Washington and Tehran.
The US is demanding that Iran curb its missile program if the two nations are to instead resume talks, but Iran has rejected that demand.
Foreign Minister Araqchi said in Turkey on Tuesday that missiles would never be the subject of any negotiations.
In response to US threats of military action, Araqchi said Tehran was ready for either negotiations or warfare, and also ready to engage with regional countries to promote stability and peace.
“Regime change is a complete fantasy. Some have fallen for this illusion,” Araqchi told CNN Turk. “Our system is so deeply rooted and so firmly established that the comings and goings of individuals make no difference.”
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CBS News Chief Weiss Touts Commentator Push, Draws Mixed Reaction in Newsroom
FILE PHOTO: Bari Weiss speaks at the 2022 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 3, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
Three months into her tenure, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss presented a vision this week to revitalize the nearly century-old broadcaster, in part by applying the same formula that fueled the rise of The Free Press – recruiting commentators who offer observations about news, politics and culture.
From adding 19 new commentators, including some drawn from The Free Press ranks, to introducing new podcasts, newsletters and live events, employees were variously energized or skeptical of the ideas presented by CBS’ new boss. Weiss’ notions about how to thrive in a post-Walter Cronkite era struck some as in conflict with the stated mission of doing great journalism, according to seven current and former CBS News employees and industry insiders.
In her presentation, Weiss also envisioned a galaxy of cross-platform stars, like New York Times columnist and CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, whom she highlighted with a meme: “Sorkining.” The Dealbook founder is the author of several business books, executive producer of the Showtime series “Billions,” and maestro of the New York Times premiere live event, and a Davos fixture.
“It’s like saying ‘Hey, Hollywood. Why can’t you just be like Leonardo DiCaprio?’ If people knew how to bottle that magic and make someone a star, they would do it,” said a former CBS employee.
An industry veteran said the idea suggested a lack of appreciation for the power of television, which has been making stars for generations: among them “CBS Evening News” anchors Dan Rather, Connie Chung, Walter Cronkite and Katie Couric.
The 41-year-old Weiss, who has no broadcast experience and has been described as a distant leader by six current and former CBS News sources, now has to deliver on her promise of capturing new and younger viewers – including political independents who don’t see themselves reflected in mainstream media. It is a daunting undertaking that has hobbled executives across broadcast and cable, including former CNN chief Chris Licht, ousted in June 2023.
One supporter sees the charismatic Weiss as a modern-day Katharine Graham, the legendary publisher of the Washington Post, who was undermined by underlings when she took over in 1963. Graham transformed the paper and led it through its Watergate-era heyday, and generally left editorial decisions to Executive Editor Ben Bradlee.
A current staffer, speaking on background, said, “People are saying, ‘Let’s give her a chance’ … I want to see her succeed. If she succeeds, we all succeed.”
CBS News and Weiss did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
PRIORITIES FOR CBS NEWS
Weiss, a former opinion journalist and media entrepreneur, joined CBS after parent Paramount owner David Ellison bought her five-year-old media company, The Free Press, for $150 million in October.
Some see Weiss’ playbook of expanding CBS’s journalism ranks with commentators as conflicting with other initiatives including breaking news and landing deep investigative stories, according to three current and former CBS News staffers and an industry veteran.
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” said the former employee. “But is that what a news division is or are they craving something completely different? That’s fine but don’t pretend it’s a news division.”
Another current CBS News staffer talked about past failures to capitalize on new ways of reaching the audience, such as leveraging the power of the Paramount+ streaming service to promote news shows, observing, “We have done a wretched job of being on the internet.”
Weiss is also attempting to change the news network’s political orientation, appealing to a wider cross-section of Americans, according to her remarks Tuesday. Weiss said she wants CBS News to reflect the friction animating the national conversation.
In broadening its perspective to include more diverse viewpoints, CBS News could ultimately lay claim to the uncharted ground for a center-right broadcaster, said Integrated Media Chief Executive Jonathan Miller, a veteran media executive who has held senior positions at News Corp and AOL.
“We need to commission and greenlight stories that will surprise and provoke – including inside our own newsroom,” Weiss said in her address to employees. “We also have to widen the aperture of the stories we tell.”
On that front, CBS has had mixed results so far. Earlier this month, “CBS Evening News” broadcast a widely panned segment featuring U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in various meme-like situations, saluting him as “the ultimate Florida man.”
EARLY SUCCESSES
It has also seen successes, including Lesley Stahl’s interview with Trump son-in-law and Middle East advisor Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, within a week of brokering a peace deal between Israel and Hamas, and Norah O’Donnell’s “60 Minutes” interview with Trump. Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over its editing of an interview with his White House rival, former Vice President Kamala Harris.
It landed journalistic scoops, including interviewing the man who charged one of two gunmen who attacked a Jewish community gathering in Sydney, and exclusive video of Alex Pretti, the man killed by Border Patrol in Minneapolis, reading a tribute to a veteran who died in 2024.
Weiss announced that the network would bring in contributors with expertise in politics, health, happiness, food and culture, whom she encouraged staffers to use on-air. The roster includes Free Press columnist Niall Ferguson of the conservative Hoover Institution, as well as Casey Lewis, a former Teen Vogue and MTV editor who writes about youth culture.
“It’s great to have younger people, a diverse demographic and diverse ideology represented,” said Kathy Kiely, the chair in Free-Press Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism. “Newsrooms can’t do a good job unless we have that diversity in our ranks. What worries me is the emphasis on opinion over primary-sourced, reported facts.”
Weiss emphasized making content available online before it airs on TV to reach more viewers. CBS has long been in third place behind rivals ABC and NBC and, like most mainstream media, is struggling with audience declines as consumers migrate to social platforms.
Pew Research estimates about one-third of all adults get at least some news from podcasts. CBS News does not appear among Spotify’s or Apple’s rankings of the top 50 news podcasts.
One former employee expects the digital-first goal to be complicated because CBS hasn’t devoted sufficient resources to helping correspondents or anchors curate their social media presence or re-edit television interviews for YouTube or streaming.
Weiss encouraged staffers to think of the news organization as the best-capitalized media startup in the world.
“We are in a position, with the support of all of the leadership of this company, to really make the change we need.”