This prestige had been sorely diminished by the ravages of Haskalah, socialism and communism, as well by secular Zionism. He envisioned creating a magnificent institution, both physically imposing and spiritually inspiring, that would help stem the tide of assimilation and loss of Torah observance that was then affecting Polish Jewry.
He had a friend, Shmuel Eichenbaum, one of the wealthiest Jews in Lublin, who owned an empty lot, Lubitrovska 57, which was like owning a piece of land on Fifth Avenue in New York City. He turned to him and said, “Shmuel, give me that piece of land and we’re going to build a yeshiva there.”
When the Nazis took Lublin during World War II, they stripped the interior of the yeshiva and burned the vast library in the town square. The cries of the Jews watching their yeshiva and holy books burn to the ground were so loud that the Germans called for the army band to come and stifle their cries of