Gifted Student

Gershon Faivel Kagan. Courtesy of Yosi Kahan.

Holding the knife with precision, skillful and tireless in his efforts. Can you guess which craft these compliments are meant to describe?

Such was the impression the Šeduva ritual slaughterers had of their sixteen-year-old pupil, Gershon Faivel Kagan.

The youngest of five children, Gershon was born in 1918 in Kharkiv. His family was exiled to Russia during World War I, but after the war, they returned to Šeduva. Gershon attended a Jewish primary school and a preparatory yeshiva—a rabbinical seminary.

Quickly rising to the top of his class, Gershon went on to study at the prestigious yeshiva in Telšiai. There, his teachers recognized not only his remarkable talents but also his honest and kind character. When he left, Rabbi Elija M. Bloch of Telšiai wrote a letter of recommendation ending it with the simple, heartfelt words: "With love I wish him success."

At first, Gershon’s journey was a true success. Deciding to emigrate to the Promised Land, he gathered the necessary documents with little difficulty and arrived in his desired homeland in 1936. There, he started a family.

Unfortunately, his parents and brothers, who remained in Šeduva, were murdered during the Holocaust.