Simcha Zissel Ziv threats to traditional Judaism and to strengthen the cause of the Musar movement, Simcha Zissel decided to open a school in Kelm, the Kelm Talmud Torah. At the time, Simcha Zissel was almost forty years old. The Talmud Torah opened in approximately 1865 and attracted young students, mainly thirteen and fourteen-year-olds. Simcha Zissel’s teacher – Rabbi Yisrael Salanter – had taught Simcha Zissel the importance of Musar and so the Talmud Torah aimed not only to enhance its student’s Torah knowledge but also to shape their personalities and develop their character traits using the Musar approach. Indeed, much of daily
Simcha Zissel Halevi Levovitz Simcha Zissel Halevi Levovitz Simcha Zissel Halevi Levovitz (1908–2001) was a rabbi and founder of the first Mesivta (Jewish High School) in Boro Park, Brooklyn, and a teacher of thousands of students. He was born in 1908 in Ozovnet, Lithuania. His father, Musar movement leader Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz, was the spiritual leader of Yeshivas Mir. Simcha Zissel studied in the yeshivas of Grodno, Telz and Brisk. At the start of World War II, he was able to flee to the United States due to the efforts of Rabbi Elimelech Gavriel (Mike) Tress. Simcha Zissel settled in Brooklyn, New York where