Rav Chaim Dovid Leibowitz Reb Dovid Warshawer (Kislev 15, 5702 / 1941 - 82nd Yahrzeit)
Rav Dovid HaKohen Leibowitz was born in Warsaw and studied in the Yeshiva of Radin as a teenager, where he held private study sessions with his great-uncle, the Chofetz Chaim, for twelve hours a day. In 1908, upon the recommendation of his saintly great-uncle, Rav Dovid went to learn in the Slabodka Yeshiva, under the direction of the Alter of Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel. In 1915, Rav Leibowitz succeeded his father-in-law as Rav of Selechnik. After six years, however, he returned to Slabodka as a founding member of the Slabodka Kollel. Every member of the Kovno Kollel had to commit himself to one year of traveling abroad and raising funds for the Kollel. That is what brought Rav Dovid to America in 1926. While there, he was offered a job as Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta Torah Vodaas. Among his talmidim were Rav Gedalya Schorr and Rav Avrohom Pam. In 1933, Rav Leibowitz founded Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen (better known today as the Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva/Rabbinical Seminary of America in Forest Hills, N.Y.). There he transplanted to the United States his unique style of Talmud study as well as the Slabodka school of mussar. The Yeshiva was headed for half a century by his son, Rav Heinach Leibowitz.
