Kahaneman, Joseph Shlomo

He was born in a small town of Kulyi in Russian Lithuania, in which about 300 people lived, a third of them Jews ^[2] . He studied at the Telzskoy yeshiva rabbis Eliezer Gordon and Shimon Shkopa . Then he studied at the Novogrudok yeshiva and for three years at the Radunsky yeshiva Hafetz-Chaim , in which his friend and roommate was r. Dov Cohen ^[3] .

He married the daughter of Arieh Leib Rubin, who was then Rabbi Vija. When the father-in-law became the rabbi of Wilkomir , he was elected instead of him to the post of Rabbi Vija. In 1916 he became head of the Grodno Yeshiva where he distinguished himself with organizational skills, from that time he took up the foundation of such yeshivas. After the death in 1919 r. Yitzhak Rabinovich , became the rabbi of Ponevezh and founded the Yeshiva “Dome of Yitzhak” there, in memory of the previous rabbi ^[4] .

In 1923 - 1925 he was a deputy of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ^[2] . In the position of Rabbi Ponevezha remained until Lithuania joined the USSR in 1940 ^[4] .

In 1940 he moved to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem . R. Kahaneman and his son Abraham are the only family and yeshiva who survived the Holocaust . In 1944, with the help of Hazon Isha , he started the organization of a yeshiva in Bnei Brak , named in memory of the deceased community. The permanent yeshiva buildings were completed only ten years later. Yeshiva Opening Day was scheduled for June 10th 1953 , on the anniversary of the arrival of the Nazis in Lithuania according to the Jewish calendar .

Unlike most Orthodox rabbis, he supported Zionism , for example, on Independence Day hung an Israeli flag on the building of the yeshiva (this tradition still exists) ^{[5] [6]} .

Also p. Kahaneman founded an orphanage for refugee children from the Holocaust and the Kiryat Ponevezh district in the city of Ashdod , where he restored the Grodno yeshiva . He supported Tehran children in their fight against the Israeli establishment and called for the transfer of some of these children to religious families for upbringing, as their dead parents wanted.

R. Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman died in 1969 . His son r. After him, Abraham Kahaneman became the head of the Ponevezhsky yeshiva after his death in 2009 . Now the yeshiva is led by his grandson p. Eliezer Kahaneman.

The street in Bnei Brak is named after the rabbi. The Neot Yosef district in Bnei Brak is named after him.

• אחד בדורו: קורות חייו, מאבקו ופעלו של רבי יוסף שלמה כהנמן מאת שמואל קול, תש"ל
• הרב מפוניבז ': תולדות חייו של ר' יוסף
• הרב מפוניבז ': פרקי חיים ויצירה ל רבי יוסף שלמה הנמן מאת אהרן סורסקי, תשנ"ט