"The great gaon, Sar haTorah and otzar of yirah, Rav Yehuda Leib Forer, chief rabbi of Holyoke, Massachusetts"
In the fall of 1948, a package arrived in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the center of the US paper industry, from besieged Jerusalem. The package contained the newly published sefer Avi Ezri, sent by its author, Rav Elazar Menachem Shach. Two weeks later Rav Shach wrote a follow-up letter, addressed to “my rebbi, the great gaon, Sar haTorah and otzar of yirah, Rav Yehuda Leib Forer, chief rabbi of Holyoke, Massachusetts.”
Rav Shach elaborated in his letter on why it was important to him that Rav Forer receive a copy. “The Rav’s imprint is felt in my sefer, as I recall the shiurim on Maseches Nedarim that you delivered in Vabolnik during World War I….” Unbeknownst to the sender, the addressee had passed away several weeks earlier, and wouldn’t merit to reap nachas from his talmid’s accomplishments.
Rav Yehuda Leib Forer (c. 1878–1948) was born in Pruzhan, where Rav Elya Feinstein served as rabbi. As a 12-year-old, young Yehuda Leib went to Volozhin, then Telz, where he was a student of Rav Shimon Shkop. Proceeding to Brisk, he soon emerged as one of the premier students of Rav Chaim Brisker. His chavrusa there was the genius of the yeshivah world, Rav Shlomo Poliachek (the Meitscheter Illui).
Rav Shimon Shkop arranged Rav Yehuda Leib’s shidduch with Menucha Musha, the daughter of Rav Dovid Benzion Gefen, rav of Vabolnik. Rav Forer eventually succeeded his father-in-law as rabbi, and during World War I established an informal chaburah for stranded yeshivah students, of which Vabolnik native Rav Elazar Menachem Shach was a member.
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