Styling and photography by Sina Mizrahi
Rebbetzin Tzivia Walkin, wife of HaRav Shmuel Dovid Walkin, was born in Radin, where her grandfather was Rav Moshe Landinski, the rosh yeshivah of Radin. Her family later moved to Trabe, where her father served as a rav, but Tzivia spent several childhood years in Radin, developing a close friendship with the Chofetz Chaim’s youngest daughter, Faigele.
Her daughter, Rebbetzin Chaya Leah Small, recalls that when war broke out in Poland, Rebbetzin Tzivia took the children to their grandparents in Trabe, while Rav Walkin investigated ways to escape. He managed to obtain the coveted visas from Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, and when Chaya was just six years old the family made the harrowing journey to Kobe, Japan, along with hundreds of others, among them the students of the Mir Yeshiva.
The Walkin family lived in Kobe for one year, and then made the 800-mile journey to Shanghai, where they lived for four more years before they were finally able to emigrate to America.
“When we arrived in Shanghai, we were warmly welcomed by the Sephardic Jews who had been there since the 1800s,” recalls Rebbetzin Small. “It was such a joy for them to have us — the honor and respect they gave to the yeshivah world was overwhelming.”
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