Rav Yitzchok Isaac Eichenstein, the Kiviashder Rav of Forest Hills, Queens, was born in Kashau, Czechoslovakia, to Rav Meir, the Zhidichov Rav of Kashau. As a youth, he learned under the Kashauer Rav, Rav Shaul Brach. Upon his marriage, he replaced his father-in-law (who had moved away) as Rav of Kiviashd, and established a Yeshiva. He stayed for six years, until the Nazis arrived in 1944. The Rav was sent to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, where he lost his parents, his wife and his three young children. Despite his nisyonos, he spent his time infusing others with chizuk. Following the war, he married his wife’s younger sister, established a Bais Din to be matir (release) hundreds of agunos (women whose husbands have vanished and may not remarry) and arranged for the education of many orphans. He moved to America and settled in Queens in 1950. In 1953, under the auspices of the Satmar Rav, he established the Central Rabbinical Council of the United States and Canada.
