Without This Man, There Would Be No BMG in LakewoodToday, Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey, stands as the largest post-graduate Torah institution in the world, with some 7,000 students and 13,000 alumni. Its founding rosh yeshiva, Rav Aharon Kotler, arrived in America in 1941 and established BMG two years later, planting a seed that would transform the landscape of American Torah life. But the chain of events that led to the founding of BMG stretches back decades earlier—across an ocean, to a leather factory and estate in Aleksot, the suburb across the Nieman River from Kovno, Lithuania. It stretches back to a man who died at the age of forty-three, but whose deathbed instructions to his wife would reshape the Torah world for generations to come.
That man was Rav Chaim Shraga Feivel Frank.
On his deathbed, Rav Shraga Feivel instructed his wife, Golda, that since Heaven had not granted him time to guide his four daughters into marriage, the obligation now rested upon her. And he specified that the four men she chose for his four girls must be not only talmidei chachamim, but men of “shivti”—a Mussar term drawn from the passuk in Tehillim, “Shivti b’veis Hashem kol y’mei chayai” (27:4)—men who would dedicate their entire lives to Torah study and its propagation. He further instructed her to spend every last cent of the family fortune on maintaining these sons-in-law and their families in a life of learning.
Golda Frank fulfilled her husband’s dying wish with extraordinary faithfulness. She chose four sons-in-law who became towering pillars of the Torah world: Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, who would become Rosh Yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva and later lead it to Chevron and Yerushalayim; Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, who would lead the yeshivos of Slutsk, Kletzk, and Eitz Chaim in Yerushalayim; Rav Boruch Horowitz, who would serve as Rav of Aleksot, Rosh Yeshiva in Slabodka, and chairman of Agudas Yisroel in Lithuania (later succeeding his brother-in-law Rav Moshe Mordechai to the presidency of the Agudas HaRabbonim of Lithuania); and Rav Sheftel Kramer, who would serve as Rosh Yeshiva in Slutsk and later as mashgiach at the yeshiva in New Haven, Connecticut—the first yeshiva in the United States outside of New York City.
It was Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer—Rav Shraga Feivel’s second son-in-law—whose daughter, Chana Perel, married the young iluy of Slabodka, Rav Aharon Kotler.
Rav Aharon had learned under Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein (Rav Shraga Feivel’s first son-in-law) in Slabodka, then joined his father-in-law Rav Isser Zalman in Slutsk, and eventually led the yeshiva when it moved to Kletzk. When he escaped the inferno of Europe and arrived in America in 1941, it was the Torah values—the insistence on shivti, on total devotion to learning—that Rav Shraga Feivel Frank had implanted in his family that Rav Aharon Kotler carried with him to Lakewood. Thus the very DNA of BMG—its uncompromising commitment to full-time Torah learning as the highest calling—can be traced directly to the vision and the will of a leather merchant in Aleksot.
Nor was BMG the only institution that owes its existence to this family. Rav Sheftel Kramer’s eldest son-in-law, Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman, went on to establish Yeshivas Ner Israel in Baltimore; Rav Sheftel’s youngest son-in-law, Rav Naftali Neuberger, became its legendary menahel. The Slabodka-Chevron Yeshiva, today one of the largest in Eretz Yisrael, traces its leadership lineage through Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein and his sons-in-law Rav Yechezkel Sarna, Rav Moshe Chevroni, and Rav Aharon Cohen. The ripple effects of one man’s deathbed tzavaah reached across continents and across a century.
A Bridge Between Two Worlds
There are individuals whose lives become a bridge connecting the world of Torah scholarship with the world of material sustenance—people who understand that the survival of the Jewish spirit depends not only on great minds but also on great hearts. Rabbi Chaim Shraga Feivel Frank of Kovno was one such individual. His story reads like a chapter from the Talmud’s descriptions of the great philanthropists of antiquity, yet it unfolded in the streets of nineteenth-century Lithuania, amidst the tumult of industrialization, imperial politics, and the ever-present struggle of a people clinging to its sacred heritage.
In a time when the Jewish world was buffeted by the winds of Haskalah and the pressures of modernity, when yeshivos struggled to keep their doors open and talmidei chachamim could barely feed their families, Rav Chaim Shraga Feivel Frank stood as a pillar of support. He was not merely a wealthy man who gave charity. He was a visionary who understood that every ruble invested in Torah was an investment in eternity.
The City of Kovno: A Metropolis of Torah
To understand the man, one must first understand his city. Kovno—known in Lithuanian as Kaunas—sits at the confluence of two great rivers, the Nieman and the Vilia, in the heart of what is now central Lithuania. In the nineteenth century, it served as the capital of the Kovno Governorate, one of the westernmost provinces of the Russian Empire’s Pale of Settlement—that vast, legally mandated zone within which millions of Jews were compelled to reside. For the Jews who lived within its borders, the Pale was both home and restriction—a land of vibrant Jewish life bounded by Tsarist limitation.
Kovno’s Jewish community grew dramatically during the nineteenth century. In 1847, there were approximately 2,013 Jews living in Kovno and its suburb Slobodka. By 1864, the number had risen to 16,540, and by 1897 the community had swelled to 25,441—roughly thirty percent of the city’s total population. The arrival of the railway in 1861, connecting Kovno to the main line running from St. Petersburg to Warsaw, transformed the city into a commercial and intellectual hub. Scholars and students traveled along these new arteries to and from the great yeshivos that made Kovno a citadel of learning.
Across the Nieman to the south lay Aleksot (Aleksotas), perched on rolling green hills—a suburb with its own fascinating history. In Rav Shraga Feivel’s day, Aleksot had the quirk of operating under a different calendar than Kovno proper: the Gregorian calendar on the Aleksot side versus the Julian calendar used in the Russian governorate across the river. Locals joked that the bridge connecting the two was “the longest bridge in the world”—because it took twelve days to cross. It was on those green hills of Aleksot, in that liminal space between two jurisdictions, that Rav Shraga Feivel Frank built his estate and his legacy.
The Leather Merchant: Industry and Enterprise
Rav Shraga Feivel Frank was one of the wealthiest men in Kovno. He owned a leather factory, a leather goods store, and a great deal of real estate. The leather and fur trades were among the most prominent economic sectors in Lithuania’s Jewish communities, and the mid-nineteenth century was a period of rapid industrial transformation in the Russian Empire. Tsar Alexander II’s reforms of the 1860s—including the emancipation of the serfs and the relaxation of some restrictions on Jewish economic activity—created new opportunities for entrepreneurial Jews. The expansion of the railway system enabled raw materials to be transported more efficiently and finished goods to reach broader markets. For a leather merchant in Kovno, the railroad’s arrival meant access to suppliers across the vast forests of the Empire and to customers in Western European markets.
It was in this dynamic economic environment that Rav Shraga Feivel Frank built his fortune. Yet unlike many of his wealthy peers—who were drawn either toward the Haskalah or toward the ostentatious display of wealth—Rav Shraga Feivel channeled his prosperity into an entirely different direction.
Talmid and Patron of Rav Yisrael Salanter
Rav Shraga Feivel was himself a talmid chacham of genuine distinction, but his spiritual formation was shaped by a singular relationship: he was a devoted talmid and supporter of Rav Yisrael Lipkin of Salant, the founder of the Mussar movement.
The beis hamussar—the house of ethical self-improvement that was the hallmark of Rav Yisrael Salanter’s revolutionary approach to Jewish spiritual life—was located in Rav Shraga Feivel’s own home. He used his wealth to assist the nascent Mussar movement by supporting the Slabodka Yeshiva and other Mussar-linked institutions.
He was described as a “tippus mufla”—a wondrous exemplar—of “rachim u’mokir rabanan,” one who loved and honored Torah scholars. Rav Yisrael Salanter himself testified to the halachic acumen of Rav Shraga Feivel, noting that he was not merely a baal tzedakah but a genuine talmid chacham whose understanding of Torah law was both broad and deep.
Rav Chaim Zeitz’ik wrote about what it was like to learn under the patronage of this remarkable man: “They had, through Rav Shraga Feivel, access to the greatest teachers. He supported the yeshiva of Rav Yisrael Salanter and all of its affiliated institutions. In the beis midrash that he funded, the sound of Torah never ceased—morning, afternoon, and evening, the voices of learners rose and fell like the tides of the sea.”
The Frank Estate: A Palace of Torah
The bridge from Kovno crossed over the Nieman and continued along the banks of the great river toward Aleksot. After the bridge, the road forked—one path led directly to the Aleksot neighborhood while the other turned toward the Frank estate. The property was magnificent. Set upon the green hills that characterize Aleksot’s terrain, it commanded a view that seemed to encompass the whole of Jewish Kovno.
The house itself was built on two levels. On the first floor was a spacious reception hall, behind which lay the guest quarters. On the second floor were additional rooms that served as a gathering place for the many distinguished visitors who frequented the estate. The first floor also housed the private synagogue of Rav Raphael, Rav Shraga Feivel’s son and firstborn. On the second floor, there were yet more chambers that had once echoed with the voices of some of the greatest Torah scholars of the age.
From time to time, the gedolei haTorah would visit, including Rav Yisrael of Salant and his talmidim, and the Alter of Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel. In this house, the lines between the sacred and the secular dissolved. Every meal was a seudas mitzvah. Every conversation was a shiur. Every guest was treated as if he carried the Shechinah upon his shoulders.
The Open Door: Hachnasas Orchim as a Way of Life
Rav Shraga Feivel was driven by an inner imperative to care for his guests. From his very nature—he was drawn to chesed. He personally oversaw the mitzvos of hachnasas orchim, and when guests arrived at his home, they were greeted not by servants but by the master of the house himself. He would tell his household: “I don’t want our guests to merely have a place to sleep. They should feel honored.” He would personally ensure their comfort, sometimes staying up late to make certain that every detail was attended to—the bedding fresh, the food warm, the atmosphere welcoming.
He was a man who understood the teaching that when one receives a guest, it is as if one has received the Shechinah itself. For him, hachnasas orchim was not a mitzvah to be delegated. It was a personal encounter with the Divine.
A Bold Move: Teaching the Russian Language
One of the most remarkable initiatives of Rav Shraga Feivel’s life was his decision to hire a tutor to teach his children the Russian language. In an era when many in the Orthodox community viewed secular education with deep suspicion—and when the Haskalah movement was using secular learning as a wedge to draw Jews away from Torah observance—this was a courageous act. But Rav Shraga Feivel understood the practical realities of Jewish life under the Tsar. Navigating the labyrinth of imperial bureaucracy, commerce, and civic life required fluency in the language of the country. His children grew up fluent in both the language of their ancestors and the language of their country, equipped to serve both God and community in the fullest sense.
Never Embarrass the Recipient: The Art of Giving
Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of Rav Shraga Feivel’s tzedakah was his extraordinary sensitivity to the dignity of the recipients. He understood the Rambam’s teaching that the highest form of charity is one in which the giver does not know the identity of the recipient and the recipient does not know the identity of the giver. When he learned that a family was in need, he would arrange for the assistance to arrive in a way that preserved their honor completely. Money would appear mysteriously. Debts would be paid without explanation. A merchant would suddenly find his credit restored, never knowing that it was the hand of Rav Shraga Feivel that had reached into the darkness to bring light.
Once, while traveling by wagon, Rav Shraga Feivel noticed that the driver seemed troubled. After gentle inquiry, the man revealed that he was deeply in debt—he owed twenty rubles and five kopikos, a crushing sum for a simple wagoner. Rav Shraga Feivel discreetly pressed the exact amount into the man’s hand, wrapping the money in a cloth so that the driver would not be embarrassed by the sight of coins being handed to him in charity. When the driver tried to refuse, Rav Shraga Feivel told him: “This is not from me. This is from the One who sends sustenance to all His creatures. I am merely the messenger.”
The Offer He Refused
Rav Shraga Feivel was once offered the opportunity to become a director of a major company in Finland. Had he accepted, he would have become one of the great millionaires of the country. But Rav Shraga Feivel declined. To his family, he explained: “Money I have, Baruch Hashem. I am wealthy. But according to my current situation, I am able to direct my four daughters as I see fit, according to my understanding and my values. If I accept this position, I will become one of the wealthiest men in the country—and then I am no longer certain that I will be able to raise my daughters according to my wishes. The wealth will bring its own pressures, its own expectations, its own dangers.”
This was a man who understood what so many wealthy people fail to grasp: that money is a tool, not a master.
A Prayer That Was Answered
It was known that Rav Shraga Feivel had a custom of saying a special tefillah that his children should not become excessively wealthy. He davened that they should have enough—enough to live with dignity, enough to give generously, enough to support Torah—but not so much that wealth would become a snare for their souls.
A member of the Kotler family recalled this tradition: “My grandmother, alehah hashalom, used to always tell us about her grandfather, the famous Rav Shraga Feivel Frank. He had a great big business in Kovno. He was considered from the prominent gevirim of Kovno. He was a baal achsanya of Rav Yisroel Salanter in Kovno. The bais hamussar was in his house. But it was in his tzavaah that his daughters should marry talmidei chachamim muflagim… and he was mispallel that besides that, no wealth should remain.” And indeed, this prayer was fulfilled. His descendants lived lives of Torah rather than of material accumulation.
A Champion of the Common People
The story of Rav Shraga Feivel and the merchants of Kovno reveals the depth of his commitment to justice alongside charity. During a period of economic crisis, as the cost of basic necessities soared, merchants began raising their prices to levels that the common people could not afford. Rav Shraga Feivel called the merchants together and spoke to them with a directness that left no room for misunderstanding. “You will lower your prices,” he told them. “You will take the cost of the goods and add only a fair margin. And you will do this not because I am asking you, but because the Torah demands it.”
But Rav Shraga Feivel did not stop at words. He personally subsidized the difference between what the merchants needed to survive and what the people could afford to pay. He became, in effect, a one-man social safety net—covering the gap between need and capacity with his own resources.
A Joy That Transformed a City
The gaon Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel related that when he visited the home of Rav Shraga Feivel Frank on the occasion of a simchah, the joy that filled the house was palpable. Rav Shraga Feivel’s simchos were never private affairs. They were communal events in which the entire kehillah participated. The poor came alongside the wealthy. The talmidei chachamim sat beside the baalei batim. And at the center of it all was Rav Shraga Feivel himself, his face radiant with a joy that came not from his own celebration but from the knowledge that he was bringing happiness to others.
At one such gathering, Rav Shraga Feivel was observed dancing with an abandon that seemed out of character for a man of his dignity. When asked about it, he replied simply: “When a Yid rejoices at a simchah shel mitzvah, the Shechinah itself dances with him. How can I remain still?”
Father and Brother: The Two Tzvi Pesach Franks
In addition to his four daughters, Rav Shraga Feivel had two sons: Raphael, his firstborn, and Tzvi Pesach, named after Rav Shraga Feivel’s own father, Tzvi Pesach Hirsh Frank. Rav Shraga Feivel’s son Tzvi Pesach married a daughter of Rav Aryeh Leib Broida. His mother was Mina (n茅e Torzki).
A word must be said here to avoid a common confusion. Rav Shraga Feivel’s brother, Rav Yehuda Leib Frank, was one of the founders of the settlement of Hadera in Eretz Yisrael, and his son—also named Tzvi Pesach Frank—became the renowned Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim, the great posek who served as Av Beis Din and Rav of Yerushalayim for decades, authoring the monumental Har Tzvi and Mikra’ei Kodesh. This Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, the nephew, was born in Kovno in 1873 and emigrated to Eretz Yisrael in 1892. His father-in-law’s brother-in-law was Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. His son-in-law was Rav Shmuel Rozovsky, the great Rosh Yeshiva of Ponevezh. So there were two Tzvi Pesach Franks in the family—uncle and nephew—both products of the Kovno Torah world that Rav Shraga Feivel had done so much to sustain. Rav Shraga Feivel’s wife’s brother-in-law, Rav Zevulun Barit, served as Av Beis Din of Plungian.
The Twilight of a Tzaddik
Rabbi Chaim Shraga Feivel Frank was born in the year 5603 (1843) and passed away at the tragically young age of forty-three, in 1886. His death left all of Kovno in mourning. The gaon Rav Yitzchak Elchonon Spector, the great Rav of Kovno who had served the community since 1864, was so moved by his passing that he personally participated in the taharah—the ritual preparation of the body for burial—an extraordinary honor that speaks volumes about the esteem in which Rav Shraga Feivel was held.
Rav Shraga Feivel had left instructions that no hespedim be delivered at his funeral. Rav Yitzchak Elchonon stood before the assembled mourners and said: “I would disobey his request—but I am afraid of him.” With that, he sat down. It was, in its way, the most eloquent hesped that could have been delivered—a testament to the awe that this young man had inspired in the gadol hador.
Rav Shraga Feivel’s youngest daughter, Devorah Kramer, recalled this scene decades later, preserving it for posterity. That the memory of his levayah was still vivid to his children after so many years testifies to the profound impression their father had left—a man they barely had time to know, yet whose values shaped every aspect of their lives.
An Eternal Legacy
Today, the physical structures that Rav Shraga Feivel built have long since crumbled. The Aleksot estate was swept away by the tides of two World Wars and Soviet occupation. The Jewish community of Kovno, which numbered over 35,000 on the eve of the Second World War, was nearly annihilated in the Holocaust. The Kovno Ghetto was established in Slobodka in 1941, and the Slabodka Yeshiva—the very institution Rav Shraga Feivel had helped sustain—saw its rabbis and students among the first victims of Nazi brutality.
But the spiritual legacy he created endures beyond anything brick and mortar could contain. His nephew, Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, became one of the most revered poskim in Jewish history, serving as the Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim for decades. His son-in-law Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer’s Even HaEzel remains a cornerstone of Torah scholarship. His son-in-law Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein helped bring the Slabodka Yeshiva to Eretz Yisrael, where it continues to flourish as Yeshivas Chevron. And in Lakewood, New Jersey, the institution founded by his great-son-in-law Rav Aharon Kotler now enrolls thousands upon thousands of full-time Torah scholars—a living fulfillment of the deathbed dream of a leather merchant from Aleksot who understood that the only wealth worth accumulating is the wealth of Torah.
Rav Yisrael Salanter himself wrote of his devoted supporter: “I shall never cease to be amazed by the greatness of Rav Feivel Frank, of blessed memory. He was the kind of Jew the world rarely produces—a man whose Torah was matched by his deeds, whose generosity was matched by his humility, and whose vision for the Jewish future was matched by his tireless effort to make that vision real.”
That vision—of a Jewish world sustained by Torah, nourished by chesed, and guided by the uncompromising belief that spiritual wealth matters more than material fortune—is alive today in every beis midrash from Lakewood to Yerushalayim. It is the legacy of Rav Chaim Shraga Feivel Frank.
The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com
https://vinnews.com/2026/02/10/rabbi-chaim-shraga-feivel-frank-ztl-the-gvir-who-4-yeshivos-owe-their-existence-to/
