Yisrael Mendel Kaplan
Israel or Yisrael Mendel Kaplan (April 14, 1913 – April 4, 1985), known as "Reb Mendel" was an American Orthodox Jewish rabbi and author. He was best known as a teacher in the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago and the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, where he mentored many future leaders of Orthodox Jewry. Early life Yisrael Mendel Kaplan was born in Baranovich, Poland (now Baranavichy, Belarus) to Avraham and Esther Kaplan. Avraham was a lawyer and Esther was involved in community service, raising funds for the yeshiva and feeding the poor. After his bar mitzvah, Kaplan was enrolled in Yeshiva Ohel Torah-Baranovich, and studied under Elchonon Wasserman. He was considered a very promising student and was assigned Wasserman's son, Naftali, as a study partner. When Wasserman needed to travel overseas in order to raise money for the yeshiva, Kaplan would deliver the lecture in his stead. He later studied in the Mir yeshiva under Yeruchom Levovitz. In late 1939, during the invasion of Poland, the Jews of Baranovich fled for their lives. Wasserman advised his yeshiva students to regroup in then-independent Vilna, Lithuania. Kaplan, who by this time had gotten married, moved there with his family, where he studied under