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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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German Antisemitism Commissioner Targeted With Death Threat Letter After Arson Attack on Home
Andreas Büttner (Die Linke), photographed during the state parliament session. The politician was nominated for the position of Brandenburg’s anti-Semitism commissioner. Photo: Soeren Stache/dpa via Reuters Connect
Andreas Büttner, the commissioner for antisemitism in the state of Brandenburg in northeastern Germany, has been targeted the second attack in under a week after receiving a death threat, sparking outrage and prompting local authorities to launch a full investigation.
According to the German newspaper Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten (PNN), the Brandenburg state parliament received a letter on Monday threatening Büttner’s life, with the words “We will kill you” and an inverted red triangle, the symbol of support for the Islamist terrorist group Hamas.
State security police have examined the anonymous letter under strict safety measures, determining that a gray substance inside was harmless. Authorities are now probing the incident as part of an ongoing investigation into threats against the German official.
Ulrike Liedtke, president of the Brandenburg state parliament, condemned the latest attack on Büttner, describing the death threats and harassment as “completely unacceptable.”
“Threats and violence are not a form of political discourse, but crimes against humanity,” Liedtke said. “Andreas Büttner has our complete support and solidarity.”
A former police officer and member of the Left Party, Büttner took office as commissioner for antisemitism in 2024 and has faced repeated attacks since.
On Sunday night, Büttner’s private property in Templin — a town located approximately 43 miles north of Berlin — was targeted in an arson attack, and a red Hamas triangle was spray-painted on his house.
The home of Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, Andreas Büttner, was set on fire overnight in a targeted attack.
His family was inside the house at the time.
This is the second attack against Büttner in the past 16 months. His car was previously vandalized with swastikas. This… pic.twitter.com/cAbFnMIwQ7
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) January 5, 2026
According to Büttner, his family was inside the house at the time of the attack, marking the latest assault against him in the past 16 months.
“The symbol sends a clear message. The red Hamas triangle is widely recognized as a sign of jihadist violence and antisemitic incitement,” Büttner said in a statement after the incident.
“Anyone who uses such a thing wants to intimidate and glorify terror. This is not a protest, it is a threat,” he continued.
Hamas uses inverted red triangles in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets about to be attacked. The symbol, a common staple at pro-Hamas rallies, has come to represent the Palestinian terrorist group and glorify its use of violence.
In August 2024, swastikas and other symbols and threats were also spray-painted on Büttner’s personal car.
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Harvard President Blasts Scholar Activism, Calls for ‘Restoring Balance’ in Higher Ed
Harvard University President Alan Garber speaks during the 374th Commencement exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Harvard University president Alan Garber, fresh off a resounding endorsement in which the Harvard Corporation elected to keep him on the job “indefinitely,” criticized progressive faculty in a recent podcast interview for turning the university classroom into a pulpit for the airing of their personal views on contentious political issues.
Garber made the comments last week on the “Identity/Crisis Podcast,” a production of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jewish think tank which specializes in education research.
“I think that’s where we went wrong,” Garber said, speaking to Yehuda Kurtzer. “Because think about it, if a professor in a classroom says, ‘This is what I believe about this issue,’ how many students — some of you probably would be prepared to deal with this, but most people wouldn’t — how many students would actually be willing to go toe to toe against a professor who’s expressed a firm view about a controversial issue?”
Garber continued, saying he believes higher education, facing a popular backlash against what critics have described as political indoctrination, is now seeing a “movement to restore balance in teaching and to bring back the idea that you really need to be objective in the classroom.”
He added, “What we need to arm our students with is a set of facts and a set of analytic tools and cultivation of rigor in analyzing these issues.”
Coming during winter recess and the Jewish and Christian holidays, Garber’s interview fell under the radar after it was first aired but has been noticed this week, with some observers pointing to it as evidence that Harvard is leading an effort to restore trust in the university even as it resists conceding to the Trump administration everything it has demanded regarding DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), viewpoint diversity, and expressive activity such as protests.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Garber has spent the past two years fighting factions from within and without the university that have demanded to steer its policies and culture — from organizers of an illegal anti-Israel encampment to US President Donald Trump, who earlier this year canceled $2.26 billion in public money for Harvard after it refused to grant his wishlist of reforms for which the conservative movement has clamored for decades.
Even as Harvard tells Trump “no,” it has enacted several policies as a direct response to criticisms that the institution is too permissive of antisemitism for having allowed anti-Zionist extremism to reach the point of antisemitic harassment and discrimination. In 2025, the school agreed to incorporate into its policies a definition of antisemitism supported by most of the Jewish community, established new rules governing campus protests, and announced new partnerships with Israeli academic institutions. Harvard even shuttered a DEI office and transferred its staff to what will become, according to a previous report by The Harvard Crimson, a “new Office of Culture and Community.” The paper added that Harvard has even “worked to strip all references to DEI from its website.”
Appointed in January 2024 as interim president, Garber — who previously served in roles as Harvard’s provost and chief academic officer — rose to the top position at America’s oldest and, arguably, most prestigious institution at a time when the job was least desirable. At the time, Harvard was being pilloried over some of its students cheering Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel and even forming gangs which mobbed Jewish students wending their way through campus; the university had suffered the embarrassment of its first Black president being outed as a serial plagiarist, a stunning disclosure which called into question its vetting procedures as well as its embrace of affirmative action; and anti-Israel activists on campus were disrupting classes and calling for others to “globalize the intifada.”
Garber has since won over the Harvard Corporation, which has refused to replace him during a moment that has been described as the most challenging in its history.
“Alan’s humble, resilient, and effective leadership has shown itself to be not just a vital source of calm in turbulent times, but also a generative force for sustaining Harvard’s commitment to academic excellence and to free inquiry and expression,” Harvard Corporation senior fellow Penny Pritzker said in a statement issued on behalf of the body, which is the equivalent of a board of trustees. “From restoring a sense of community during a period of intense scrutiny and division to launching vital new programs on viewpoint diversity and civil discourses and instituting new actions to fight antisemitism and anti-Arab bias, Alan has not only stabilized the university but brought us together in support of our shared mission.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Holocaust Survivors Sent Care Packages to Oct. 7 Hostages for Hanukkah
The Menorah for Hanukkah on the Square 2025 in Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom, Dec. 14, 2025. Photo: Matthew Chattle/Cover Images via Reuters Connect
Survivors of the Holocaust spread holiday cheer this Hanukkah by delivering care packages to a group of 20 hostages whom the terrorist group Hamas recently released from captivity to fulfill the requirements of a ceasefire which suspended hostilities with Israel.
The gifts, dropped off at the Israeli consulate office in New York City, was made possible by The Blue Card, the only US-based charity organization which provides financial assistance and other services to survivors of the Holocaust. Originally founded in 1934 to assist Jews who had fled Germany to escape Hitler’s persecution of the country’s Jews, it has operated ceaselessly for nearly a century.
Over the past two years, the world has seen a revival of antisemitism unlike any since the period in which The Blue Card was founded, sparked by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre that claimed the lives over of 1,200 Israelis and stole years and even more lives from 251 more who were kidnapped and held hostage in Gaza.
Some of the hostages who survived captivity have been released in stages since Israel and Hamas agreed on a ceasefire in October, and on Monday, Blue Card executive director Masha Pearl said the organization felt it necessary to reach out to them due to their having experienced a plight that is painfully familiar to what its clients endured in Europe during the Holocaust. Pearl also discussed the Bondi Beach mass shooting, in which a father and son inspired by Islamism opened fire on Jews celebrating the start of Hanukkah, murdering 15 people and injuring 40 others.
“Holocaust survivors and former hostages share a uniquely painful bond shaped by survival and resilience,” Pearl said. “After witnessing a mass shooting at a Chanukah event in Sydney, it felt even more urgent for our survivors to deliver these care packages now, spreading light at a moment that feels dark for the entire Jewish world. The resilience of the Holocaust survivors we assist, the former hostages, and now the survivors of the attack in Australia remind us that even in the face of hatred and violence, the Jewish people remain united.”
In a press release Blue Card said the care packages “carried profound meaning,” being filled to the brim with goods of all sorts, from blankets and water bottles to chap stick and even handwritten notes from the Holocaust survivors who sent them.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.