Time: 1898
When Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin’s first wife passed away at a young age, he married Sarah Sonia Retner, subsequently known to history with the appellation “Brisker Rebbetzin.” Descended from the Noda B’Yehuda and the great philanthropist Yehoshua Zeitlin, she entered the marriage as a wealthy woman. With the signing of the kesubah, she was said to have told her husband, “Mazel tov! Don’t take your kallah’s blessing lightly.”
In 1877 they moved to Eretz Yisrael, where she immersed herself in establishing the Diskin Orphanage and Yeshivas Ohel Moshe, among a myriad of other projects benefiting the beleaguered local population.