Meir Simcha of Dvinsk Meir Simcha of Dvinsk Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (1843–1926) was a rabbi and prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Eastern Europe in the early 20th century. He was a kohen, and is therefore often referred to as "Meir Simcha ha-Kohen" ("Meir Simcha the Kohen"). He is known for his writings on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, which he titled "Ohr Somayach", as well as his novellae on the Torah, titled "Meshech Chochma". Meir Simcha was born in Butrimonys (), Lithuania, to Samson Kalonymus, a local wealthy merchant. According to family tradition, his later success in Torah study was attributed to two blessings
Simcha Zorin Simcha Zorin Shalom (Simcha) Zorin (1902–1974) was a Jewish Soviet partisan commander in Minsk. Many Jewish partisans in Belorussia had their own units that operated as part of the general Soviet partisan movement and the overall Jewish resistance movement fighting the Nazis in occupied Europe, although some of these Jewish units lost their Jewish character over time. The Zorin unit, led by Simcha-Shalom Zorin, included 800 Jews. The Germans invaded Minsk in late June 1941 and transferred the city's Jews, Zorin included, to a ghetto. Zorin worked in a local prisoner of war camp, where he met a captured Soviet