Have you ever wondered what gedolim looked like in their youth? If so, then click on the links below. However, if you are convinced that they looked like yeshiva boys do today, you are in for a big surprise.

Dare one think that the preoccupation today with externalities is one of the things that is preventing us from producing Gedolim of the stature of those whose pictures are below?

Wedding picture of Rav and Rebbetzin Avigdor Miller (1935). wedding

Rav Aaron Kotler ZT"L (I have been told that the caption on this picture is not correct in that Reb Aaron Kotler "never learned in the Kovno Kollel. The picture was taken when he learned in Slabodka Yeshivah. The others in the picture are probably other Slabodka students and not necessarily people of stature.")

Rav Elya Svei ZT"L

Rav Yitzchok Hutner ZT"L

Second Picture of Rav Yitzchok Hutner ZT"L

Rav Mordechai (Max) Gifter in 1933

Rav Yaakov Yitzchok HaLevi Ruderman ZT"L

The pictures above are from two books about the lives of Rav S Z Broyde and Rav M Chodosh.

Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein ZT"L This picture of the secret Ness Ziyona Society was taken in 1890 when Rav Epstein was a student in the Volozhiner Yeshiva. Rav Epstein became a Rosh Yeshiva in Slabodka. For more on this secret society formed by students in theVolozhin Yeshiva see Nes Ziyona. This link also contains information about the history of the yeshiva during the time of the Netziv.

The pictures below are from Volume 2 of the Hebrew edition of Harav MiBrisk.

Rav Schach ZT"L

Rav Aryeh Leib Malin ZT"L (founder and Rosh Yeshiva of Bais HaTalmud in Brooklyn) on his wedding day.

Rav Shmuel Rozovsky and Rav Zalman Rothberg ZT"L

Rav Yechiel Michel Feinstein ZT"L (R' Moshe's nephew and the Brisker Rav's son-in-law)

Rav Aaron Leib Steinman

Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel

Three students from the Mir Yeshiva pose in a park in Vilnius in 1940.

Students of Telz, Purim, 1936