It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rav Yitzchok Scheiner, rosh yeshiva of the Kamenitz Yeshiva, a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel Hatorah, and one of the preeminent roshei yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel. His petirah comes on the heels of the petirah earlier today of Rav Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik zt”l, Rosh Yeshivas Brisk.
Rav Scheiner was 98 and had battled Covid-19, among other medical challenges. Rav Scheiner had contracted the virus after he received his first dose of the vaccination. After his condition deteriorated this morning, he was taken to the hospital, where he was niftar.
The rosh yeshiva resided in the Kerem Avraham neighborhood in Yerushalayim, in a humble home surrounded on every side by seforim – volumes of every color and size, old and new alike, along with rows of binders in which the rosh yeshiva’s chiddushim were neatly filed away.
Rav Scheiner was born on November 5, 1922, in the United States. His parents, R’ Dov and Perl Scheiner, had immigrated to America from Poland.
During the 1940s, he learned at Yeshivas Rabbenu Yitzchok Elchonon and then at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, under Rav Shlomo Heiman. At Torah Vodaas, he was also extraordinarily influenced by Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, the pioneer of Torah in America.
Toward the end of the 1940s, he married his rebbetzin, a granddaughter of Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz, Rosh Yeshivas Kaminetz.
During the 1960s, he taught at the yeshiva in Montreux, Switzerland, and after the petirah of his father-in-law, Rav Moshe Berenstein, who was the rosh yeshiva of the Kamenitz yeshiva in Yerushalayim, Rav Scheiner became rosh yeshiva alongside his brother-in-law, Rav Osher Lichtenstein.
In the 1990s, he became a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah. His rebbetzin, Rebbetzin Esther Leah Scheiner, passed away in 2007. Rebbetzin Scheiner was born in the city of Vilna in 1925 to her parents, Rav Moshe and Rebbetzin Nechama Liba Bernstein zt”l. Rebbetzin Bernstein was a daughter of Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz, the Kamenitzer rosh yeshiva. When she was still a little girl, Rebbetzin Scheiner’s parents moved to Kamenitz together with Rav Boruch Ber and his yeshiva. The Bernsteins lived together with Rav Boruch Ber in one house.  The Rebbetzin would recount in later years how she would seat on the lap of her venerated grandfather, and he would tell her in a unique niggun and with tremendous love, “Esther Leahke, zolst zein a tzadeikus (you should be a tzadeikes).” During these years, she would watch from afar as her grandfather delivered shiurim in the house and as he spoke in learning with the bochurim of the yeshiva. She would often tell her family that she remembers Rav Boruch Ber telling bochurim with whom he would talk in learning, “Du retzed vi a fidleh” (Your words are like a fiddle). In 1940, when all the yeshivos in Vilna escaped due to the war, her family remained together with Rav Boruch Ber and the talmidim of the yeshiva in Vilna. In Kislev of that year, Rav Boruch Ber was niftar and the Bernstein family moved to Eretz Yisroel. There, Rav Bernstein reestablished the Kamenitzer Yeshiva in Yerushalayim.
In 1949, Rav Scheiner married the rebbetzin. Rav Yitzchok and the Rebbetzin settled in Bnei Brak, living in close proximity to the Chazon Ish and the Steipler Gaon zt”l. They then moved to Yerushalayim to assist in the harbotzas Torah of the Kamenitzer Yeshiva.
In 1954, Rebbetzin Scheiner’s father fell ill and traveled to Switzerland to receive medical attention. A short time later, Rav and Rebbetzin Scheiner traveled with her family to tend to her ailing father.
During that time, Rav Moshe Bachko asked Rebbetzin Scheiner to come and be marbitz Torah at Yeshiva Eitz Chaim in Montreux, Switzerland.  In 1956, Rav Bernstein passed away. Several years later, Rav Yitzchok and the Rebbetzin moved back to Eretz Yisroel and to the Kamenitzer Yeshiva in Yerushalayim.
Levayah details will be posted once they are finalized.
Yehi zichro boruch.
{Matzav.com Israel}