This Day In History 2 Iyar/April 28

In 5705/1945, the British army liberated the death camp of Bergen-Belsen and its 40,000 barely surviving inmates.

Yahrtzeiten

5320/1560, Harav Kalman Vermeiza of Lvov, zt”l, one of the first marbitzei Torah in Poland

5572/1812, Harav Avraham Dov Ber Auerbach, zt”l, Rav of Chmelnik

5675/1915, Harav Moshe Zakan Mazuz of Djerba (Tunisia), zt”l, mechaber of Shaarei Moshe

5750/1990, Harav Avraham Baddouche of Mexico, zt”l, mechaber of Meoros Avraham

5669/1909,Harav Avraham Yitzchak Glick, Zt”l, Rav of Toltchova

Harav Avraham Yitzchak Glick was born in 5586/1826 in the village of Wieretsh near Debrecen, Hungary.

Because their previous children had died young, when this son was born his father, Rav Shammai, and his mother undertook to fast every Monday and Thursday so that Hashem should grant him long life and he should grow up to be a yerei Shamayim and a lamdan.

At the age of 12, Reb Avraham Yitzchak went to learn in the yeshivah of Harav Shmuel Shmelke Klein, then Rav in Balkany. Later, he moved on to the yeshivah of Harav Yitzchak Tzvi Margareten. From there, with many years of solid learning behind him, he went to the yeshivah of Harav Moshe Perels in Bonihad.

In 5606/1846, when Reb Avraham Yitzchak was already known as a talmid chacham and lamdan, he was taken as a chassan by Harav Yeshayah Binet of Kalev, son of Harav Mordechai Binet of Nikolsburg. For the next three years Reb Avraham Yitzchak lived in the home of his father-in-law, dedicating himself totally to the study of Torah.

Many kehillos asked Reb Avraham Yitzchak to serve as their Rav, but he declined. He owned a few buildings that his father-in-law had given him, so he was able to support his family without having to become a Rav.

A few years later, though, a fire devastated all his properties — even the house he lived in. He lost everything and was forced to enter the rabbanus. He took the position of Rav of Toltchova, where he also headed a yeshivah. He was Rav there for nearly 50 years.

Reb Avraham Yitzchak was a great masmid. In 5651/1891 he published She’eilos U’Teshuvos Parashas Mordechai, written by his grandfather Harav Mordechai Binet.

Four years later, he began publishing his own sefarim: Be’er Yitzchak on Maseches Chullin, followed by She’eilos U’Teshuvos Yad Yitzchak and Be’er Yitzchak on Maseches Gittin. Many more of his chiddushim remain in manuscript form.

Reb Avraham Yitzchak was niftar on 2 Iyar 5669/1909.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

April 28

In 1788, Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

In 1925, the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts, which gave rise to the term “Art Deco,” began a six-month run in Paris.

In 1942, pollster George Gallup said most Americans preferred to call the then-current global conflict “World War II” or “The Second World War” (other suggestions included “Survival War” or “War of World Freedom”).

In 1947, a six-man expedition set out from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to the Polynesian Islands.

In 2001, a Russian rocket lifted off from Central Asia bearing the first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and two cosmonauts on a journey to the international space station.