Avraham Kalmanowitz

Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz
Title	Rosh Yeshivas Mir
Personal
Born	Avraham Kalmanowitz March 8, 1887[1] Dzialiacičy, Minsk province, Russian empire
Died	15 February 1964(1964-02-15) (aged 76) Miami Beach, Florida
Religion	Judaism
Children	Shraga Moshe Yisroel Yitzchak Betzalel[2] 3 daughters
Parent(s)	Rabbi Aharon Aryeh Leib and Maita Kalmanowitz
Denomination	Orthodox
Alma mater	Slabodka yeshiva[3]
Position	Rosh yeshiva
Yeshiva	Mir yeshiva, Brooklyn, New York
Began	1946
Ended	1964
Other	Rav of Rakov Rav of Tykocin Member, Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the World Agudath Israel
Buried	Sanhedria Cemetery, Jerusalem

Avraham Kalmanowitz (also Abraham; Hebrew: אברהם קלמנוביץ; March 8, 1887 – 15 February 1964) was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Mir yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York from 1946 to 1964. Born in Russian empire, he served as rabbi of several Eastern European Jewish communities and escaped to the United States in 1940 following the German occupation of Poland. In the U.S. he was an activist for the rescue of the millions of Jews trapped in Nazi-ruled Europe and in the Soviet Union. He arranged the successful transfer of the entire Mir yeshiva from Lithuania to Shanghai, providing for its support for five years, and obtaining visas and travel fare to bring all 250 students and faculty to America after World War II. He established the U.S. branch of the Mir in 1946. In the 1950s he aided North African and Syrian Jewish youth suffering from persecution and pogroms, and successfully lobbied for the passage of a bill granting "endangered refugee status" to Jewish emigrants from Arab lands.