“I once sat in jail for the Steipler,” Rav Lazer Dunner tells me with a huge smile. “I was sentenced to eight weeks in jail, but baruch Hashem, I only had to be there for five weeks.”
Last year, I had the privilege of visiting Rav Eliezer Halevi Dunner. In the course of our lengthy conversation, he mentioned that he had a very close relationship with the Steipler and considered him his rebbe, which is why I am now back in his home, shortly before the Steipler’s 40th yahrtzeit. Rav Dunner, one of the leading rabbanim in Bnei Brak, is the rosh yeshivah of Yeshivas Tiferes Tzion, as well as the head of the Daas Shmuel kollelim and the Be’er Miriam girls’ schools. In addition, he serves as the rav of the Mayanei Hayeshua shul network.
“The jail incident was probably what led me to forge such a strong bond with him. It happened when I was still a bachur. In my younger years, when I was learning in Yeshivas Kfar Chasidim, a troubling phenomenon was sweeping through Eretz Yisrael. The leaders of a certain missionary movement had opened three institutions targeting Jewish youth, one in Yerushalayim, one in Haifa and the other in Tel Aviv. Their targets were often boys and girls from broken homes or from struggling secular families. The missionaries lured them in with promises of top-tier education and vastly improved living conditions. Tragically, many families—overwhelmed by financial or emotional strain—fell prey to the tempting offer, and their children were lost to the clutches of the meshumadim, Rachamana litzlan.
“In response, a bold and coordinated protest was organized. There would be three demonstrations on the same day, each outside one of the three missionary headquarters. The bachurim from my yeshivah were sent to join the protest in Haifa. The police arrived in force, and eight of us were arrested on the spot, including me. After several hearings in court, the judge handed down his sentence: we had a choice of either eight weeks in prison or a fine of 1,000 lira, which was an astronomical sum at the time. Conflicted and unsure what to do, we turned to the tzaddik Rav Avraham Lifshitz, zt”l, the organizer of the protests, and requested that he present our dilemma to the Steipler Gaon and ask for his daas Torah.
“The Steipler’s response was crystal clear. From the perspective of the greater cause, he said, the bachurim sitting in jail would have the strongest impact. ‘It will create a major raash around the world,’ he explained, ‘exposing the disgrace of a Jewish government that enables such a chillul Hashem and fights Torah-true Yiddishkeit.’ However, he added with his characteristic humility and sensitivity, ‘I don’t want to be the one to tell bachurim to sit in jail. But if they are willing to do so on their own, that would certainly be the superior and most effective option.’
“Once we heard those words, we understood what the Steipler truly wanted. We told Rav Lifshitz that we were ready to go to prison, not just as a punishment but as a protest, a kiddush Hashem that would broadcast the truth to the entire world. When our decision was conveyed to the Steipler, he was overjoyed. He even said that he planned to visit us in prison to personally encourage us and bolster our resolve in the face of such evil.”
I remark that it seems counterintuitive for a proper Englishman—and a Yekke on top of that—to be willing to go to jail, and Rav Lazer gives a hearty laugh in response. “There was no hesitation. We understood what he wanted. In the beginning, they didn’t want to allow outside food to be brought in, so we didn’t eat. But they quickly relented because they didn’t want negative headlines, so they permitted bachurim from our yeshivah to bring us food and even reimbursed the yeshivah for it. It wasn’t easy or comfortable being there, but we made the best of it. We had almost regular sedarim and were visited by many gedolim. True to his word, a few days after we began serving our sentence, the Steipler arranged for a taxi to drive him to the prison. But when the time came for him to leave his house, he was overcome with a sudden weakness and couldn’t travel. So he sent all eight of us a memorable gift: a personal copy of his sefer Chayei Olam, inscribed with a handwritten dedication. Mine read:
“‘B’ezras Hashem Yisbarach, Monday, Parshas Beshalach 5724.
“‘A token of friendship to the dear bachur Reb Eliezer Dunner, sheyichyeh, on the occasion of his imprisonment (for his protest against the accursed monster of shmad, yimach shemam). In the zechus of this suffering he will surely merit to shtayg in Torah and yiras shamayim, and succeed in all of his endeavors for the good. This present is to serve as a remembrance from the mechaber.’
“That note, and the sefer in which it was written, are among my most cherished possessions.”
Although four decades have now passed since the Steipler Gaon’s petirah, his name is still revered in every Torah community, even among young children who never met him. Rav Yaakov Yisroel Kanievsky was born in the Ukrainian town of Hornosteipel (also known as Steipul), which is located near Chernobyl. He acquired the name “Steipler” after joining the Novardok yeshivah at just 12 years of age.
After marrying Rebbetzin Pesha Miriam Karelitz, the sister of the Chazon Ish, the Steipler became a maggid shiur in the Novardok branch in Pinsk. In 1934, after seven years as a rebbi there, he followed the Chazon Ish to Eretz Yisrael. Upon his arrival, he was immediately asked to serve as the rosh yeshivah of Yeshivas Beis Yosef, which was founded by Rav Matisyahu Shetzigel, a fellow talmid of Novardok.
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