Our Legacy

Hillel Katzman was born to Meishke and Esther Katzman in 1932. He was the middle child of three. In 1942, when the Nazis Y”S invaded the Soviet Union, his family, fled to Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

A short while after they arrived in Samarkand, both his parents and younger sister passed away as a result of the famine and typhus fever that was rampant among the refugees. Now orphaned at a very young age, he had to roam the streets with his brother for scraps of food and shelter to survive.

One day a young Chosid, Reb Shaya Gopin, was walking the streets and saw the two boys. They were in mud pits, swollen from hunger. He looked at their faces and saw they looked like Jewish boys. He asked them who they were and when they said "Katzman'' he realized that they came from a local Lubavitch family. 

Reb Shaya grabbed them and took them to Reb Michoel Teitlebaum (who was on a Shlichus by the Friediker Rebbe to establish a Lubavitcher Yeshiva) exclaiming "Reb Michoel these are your first two students in the new Yeshiva, Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim!". 

Reb Michoel didn't hesitate and immediately took the children and started teaching them Torah. This is how Tomchei Tmimim in Samarkand opened. Miraculously when the Yeshiva opened there was some food and clothing for the students. R’ Hillel Katzman was a true pioneer as one of the first and youngest students to be enrolled in that Yeshiva. 

Here at Beis Hillel Yeshivastead, our goal is to create a learning environment for all types of boys, regardless of their academic capabilities. We believe that every Bochur can succeed, as long as he is given the opportunity to do so on his level.