Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Toras Chaim, died Oct. 19, 2026, at the age of 93.
Three funeral services were held: Oct. 20 in Denver and then in Lakewood, NJ, and Oct. 22 in Jerusalem. He was buried on the Mount of Olives, Oct. 22. Feldman Mortuary made local arrangements.
Eulogies at Rabbi Kagan’s funeral in Denver were delivered by Rabbi Myer J. Schwab, dean emeritus of Beth Jacob High School, a longtime colleague of Rabbi Kagan; Rabbis Dovid and Aharon Boruch Kagan (sons); Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky (grandson); and Rabbi Aharon Yisroel Wasserman, son of Rabbi Kagan’s 60-year partner at Yeshiva Toras Chaim, Rabbi Isaac Wasserman.
After Rabbi Kagan’s funeral in Denver, Oct. 20, when kaddish was recited, the mourners walked to Rabbi Kagan’s home, where kaddish was recited again, and then walked to the former home of Yeshiva Toras Chaim at 1400 Quitman St., where kaddish was recited again.
Eulogies at Rabbi Kagan’s funeral at the Lakewood, NJ yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha, were delivered to an overflow crowd of some 2,000 people by the four deans of the yeshiva: Rabbis Malkiel Kotler, Yisroel Neuman, Yeruchem Olshin, and Dovid Shustal; by Rabbi Shalom Kamenetsky, dean of the Philadelphia Yeshiva (son-in-law); Rabbi Yaakov Furman, dean of Yeshivas Tiferes Shmuel (son-in-law), Rabbi Chaim Ozer Kagan (son), and Rabbi Avrohom Lipschutz, mashgiach, Telshe Yeshiva, Chicago (son-in-law).
Eulogies at Rabbi Kagan’s funeral in Jerusalem were delivered by Rabbi Shalom Kamenetsky; Rabbis Dovid, Chaim Ozer and Aharon Boruch Kagan; Rabbi Shaya Kosovsky (a cousin), Rabbis Moshe Shlessinger and Yosef Altusky (nephews), and Rabbi Yaakov Friedman, a disciple of Rabbi Kagan, who is dean of Yeshivas Bircas Mordechai, Beitar, Israel.
Rabbi Israel Meir Hakohen Kagan was born in 1933 to Rabbi Yehuda Leib and Devora Kagan. He was born within the shloshim (30-day mourning period) for Rabbi Yisroel Meir Hakohen Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim. His father had been a student of the Chofetz Chaim and named his son after him.
Rabbi Yehudah Kagan was a great-nephew of the pre-Holocaust leader of East European Orthodox Jewry, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky of Vilna. Denver’s Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan’s father’s maternal grandmother was Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky’s sister. Rabbi Kagan’s grandmother lived in Rabbi Grodzinsky’s home for several years.
Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan was educated at Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva (RJJ) on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He then studied in Yeshiva Beis Midrash Elyon in Monsey, New York. In 1950, he entered the Lakewood Yeshiva, becoming one of the early disciples of the yeshiva’s founder, Rabbi Aaron Kotler.
Rabbi Kagan married Leah Ehrenfeld, daughter of the Mattesdorfer Rav, Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld, in 1957.
He continued his studies in the Lakewood kollel, 1957-1967, before coming to Denver to join Rabbi Isaac Wasserman in heading Denver’s Yeshiva Toras Chaim.
Rabbi Kagan is survived by daughters Miriam (Rabbi Shalom Kamenetsky), Chavie (Rabbi Yaakov Furman), Gitty (Rabbi Avrohom Lipschutz), and sons Rabbis Chaim Ozer (Tybe), Dovid (Minna) and Aharon Boruch (Chani); and by many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
© IJN 2026
