Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, the Alter of Novardok, was born in the Lithuanian town of Plongian to Rav Shlomo Zalman, Rav and Dayan of the town. Rav Yosef Yoizel joined Kovno’s Kollel Perushim where he studied under Rav Itzele Blazer, Rav Naftoli Amsterdam and Rav Avrohom Shenker, spending at least eighteen hours a day – most of the time standing – studying. He also spent two lengthy periods learning in solitude: first, he secluded himself in a small room for a year and a half after tragically losing his first wife during childbirth; later, learning in a room in a forest for twelve years, leaving only to visit his family for Shabbosos. In 1894, Rav Yosef Yoizel began to visit the Alter of Kelm, Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv. Later, he established a large Yeshiva in Novardok and was responsible for creating a whole network of Yeshivos. During the First World War, in 1914, he moved the Yeshiva – with its bochurim – to Hommel in the Ukraine, as the Germans advanced on Novardok. In 1918, he moved it to Kiev.
