Rabbi Moshe Yechiel Epstein first came to America in 1920 as part of a delegation from Agudas Yisroel, to raise money to help the Jewish refugees in Poland, which had been a major battleground between the Germans, Austrians, and Russians during World War I. While gone, Rabbi Moshe Yechiel's brother started to "fir rabbanus" in Ozherov, and made himself popular. When he returned and saw that people really liked his brother, he decided not make a controversy, and took over as rabbi of the smaller Polish town of Otwock.