Famous Sons of Rokiskis

Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, distinguished Chassidic scholar, was born in Rokiskis.  In the years right before and during World War I, the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe, Sholom Dober Schneersohn, sent Rabbi Levitin to the Caucasus to set up institutions to bring the Jews of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and area closer to traditional Judaism.  He founded religious schools and Talmudic seminaries there.

After serving a prison term in Siberia for his Jewish activities, he came to the United States in 1938, where he became a teacher in the Chabad movement. He was the provost of the Central Chabad Lubavitch Yeshiva in New York from its inception in 1940 until his death at age 91 in 1974  and was a well-know mashpia, or "person of influence" or spiritual mentor in the Chabad movement.

Rokiskis SIG member Shirley Saunders writes " ... Shmuel Levitan, known as Shmuel Rakishker ....  Rabbi Itzik Shneerson, Menachem Mendel Shneerson's father-in-law, met Shmuel Levitan in Rokishok when he stayed on the third floor of Pesach Ruch's house during his visit to Rokishok in the 1930s. Shneerson brought Levitan to the United States as his personal secretary when he was able to leave Europe during World War II.  Levitan's name is recorded on my aunt's Birth Record from 1898."  

Rabbi Zelig Ruch, known as Zelig Rakishker, born in Rokiskis in 1879 to Michel and Pere Ruch, became the head or Rosh Yeshiva of the famous Lomza Yeshiva in Poland.  Although of a Lubavitch Chassidic family, he chose to study at the Slabodka Yeshiva, near Kovno, Lithuania, showing his intellectual independence.  During World War I he evacuated, with many students, from Lomza to Prilucki in Ukraine.  He returned to Lomza, where he taught for many years.  He helped to found a branch of the Lomza Yeshiva in Israel, where he served as Rosh Yeshiva, but returned to Poland.  Although he managed to escape from Poland to Lithuania when World War II broke out, he met his death in the Vilna ghetto.

Yakov Shmushkevich, born in Rokiskis on April 14, 1902, joined the Communist Party in 1918.  He served in the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1920, graduated from the Kachinsk Military Aviation School in 1931, and in 1936 took part in the Spanish Civil War under the name of General Douglas.  He returned to Russia in 1937 and was awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" for his service in Spain.  He became chief of the Russian Air Force in 1939 and distinguished himself in battle against the Japanese. For these services he received his second  "Hero of the Soviet Union"  award.  Nevertheless, in 1941 he was arrested during a purge of air force senior commanders and in October of 1941 was executed. After Stalin's death in 1953, Shmushkevich was 'rehabilitated' in the Soviet Union.