 Born in Frankfurt, Germany into a distinguished rabbinical family, Bezalel Rakow was a direct descendant of Rabbi Yomtov Lipman Heller, (author of the "Tosafos Yomtov" commentary on the Mishnah).His father, Rabbi Yomtov Lipman Rakow, a pupil of the great Volozhin yeshiva, had been a rosh yeshiva in Frankfurt-on-Main.In 1939, he, aged 10, his parents and his brother Benzion Rakow were granted asylum, and settled in London.