Rabbi Shmuel Arieh Levin from Argentina visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community on February 15. He arrived with eight members of his religious community. The purpose of the visit was for the delegation to observe with their own eyes the state of the Jewish community in Panevėžys, to learn more about their history, to learn about the world-renowned yeshiva and to find out more about the founder of the Ponevezh yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponovezher Rov and chief rabbi and former member of the Lithuanian parliament who founded in 1919 the yeshiva where 500 students from Europe studied. Rabbi Kahaneman and his eldest son, who had diplomatic status, left for America in 1940, and during World War II moved the Ponevezh yeshiva to, or reëstablished it in Bene Berak (Bnei Brak, with a sister institution in Ashdod), Israel. Rabbi Levin was graduated from the Ponevezh yeshiva in Israel and personally knew Rabbi Kahaneman and his son Elias Kahaneman. Today the world-famous yeshiva where more than 1,000 students study is led by his grandson, Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman (Cohenman).
The visiting rabbi provided much information about Yosef Kahnaneman during the meeting. The guests watched a 1932 documentary film about the pre-war history of the Jews of Panevėžys and the students and teachers of the Ponevesh yeshiva, from the archive of the Panevėžys Jewish Community. Escorted by Panevėžys City Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman, the guests also visited a large number of Jewish historical sites, including the building which housed the yeshiva at Savanorių street No. 11 which now houses an operating producing sweets, the former Panevėžys Yevne Jewish Girls Gymnasium also established by Yosef Kahaneman in 1922, the Jewish cemetery with the Sad Jewish Mother statue and various plaques commemorating famous Jews from Panevėžys. The guests said Lithuania was beautiful and noted the protection of Jewish heritage in the country. Chairman Kofman acquainted them with the Community’s activities, educational outreach programs with school and social welfare programs.
