Dawid Kahane

Dawid Kahane (דוד כהנא; Grzymałów, 15 March 1903 – 24 September 1998, Jerusalem), was a Rabbi in the interwar Poland, religious teacher, a doctor of philosophy, and after World War II, the Chief Rabbi of the Polish People's Army in the military rank of Podpolkovnik, serving between 1945 and 1949, when he left Poland for Israel.

Life
Kahane was born in Grzymałów, partitioned Poland (now Hrymailiv, Ukraine) into a religious family of the Rabbis. He studied in Berlin and in Wrocław (then Breslau). In 1923–1929, following the reconstitution of sovereign Poland, he continued his studies at the University of Vienna where he obtained the title of Doctor of Philosophy in Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt. Upon his return to Poland, Kahane joined the Mizrachi party in Lwów. He made his living as a religious teacher. Subsequently, he was appointed Rabbi of Tykocin, and in 1929–1939 the Rabbi in Ose Tow Synagogue of Lwów. He also served as director of scientific Tanakh institute locally.

Following the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland Kahane was appointed member of the Judenrat for the Lwów Ghetto. Deported to Janowska concentration camp, he escaped on 23 April 1943 and went into hiding on the 'Aryan' side. He survived the Holocaust in the General Government District of Galicia. After the Soviet takeover, in 1944 he joined the Polish People's Army in the rank of Major, promoted to Podpolkovnik in 1946. However, when the Polish Army field rabbinate was liquidated in 1949 during the Stalinism in Poland, Kahane left the army and emigrated. While in Israel, he became the Chief Rabbi of the Air Force. In 1967–1975 he resided in Argentina and served as Chief Rabbi of that country. He returned to Israel in 1975 and settled in Tel Aviv. He wrote memoirs in Hebrew including: Joman geto Lwow (1978); translated as the Lvov Ghetto Diary (1990); as well as the Achre(j) ha-mabul (1968).

Notes and references

 * Kurt I. Lewin, Przeżyłem. Saga Świętego Jura spisana w roku 1946 przez syna rabina Lwowa, Zeszyty Literackie, Warsaw 2006,  ISBN 83-60046-40-9.