Yonah Karpilov

[3] He was among the "lions of the Mir", the term given to that yeshiva's elite students, and his chavrusah was Yechiel Michel Feinstein, who would later become a rosh yeshiva in Israel.

Among his other friends and acquaintances in Mir were the rabbis Simcha Sheps, Binyamin Zeilberger, Reuven Grozovsky, Leib Malin, and Chaim Shmuelevitz, many of whom felt humbled by him.

[4][5][3] Karpilov authored the sefer Yonas Ilem, and composed the song Yetzaveh Tzur Chasdo.

With the help of the Japanese consul to Kaunas, Chiune Sugihara, the yeshiva escaped Europe for Japan and Japanese-occupied Shanghai.

When his rebbi, Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, heard of Karpilov's murder, he wept, saying "Woe to the land, for a great man is gone.

Rabbi Yonah Karpilov (sitting) with his younger brother, Zeev Vilensky (1912–2000)