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RabbiChaim Ozer Grodzinski
Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (right) conversing with Rabbi Shimon Shkop
Personal life
Born	(1863-08-24)August 24, 1863 9 Elul 5623 AM (Hebrew calendar) Iwye, Russian Empire (now Belarus)
Died	August 9, 1940(1940-08-09) (aged 76) 5 Av 5700 AM (Hebrew calendar) Vilnius, Soviet Lithuania
Parent	Rabbi David Shlomo Grodzinski
Alma mater	Volozhin yeshiva
Occupation	Rav of Vilnius, Lithuania
Religious life
Religion	Judaism
Denomination	Orthodox

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (Template:Lang-he; August 24, 1863 – August 9, 1940) was a Av beis din (rabbinical chief justice), posek (halakhic authority), and Talmudic scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania in the late 19th and early 20th centuriesfor over 55 years. He played an instrumental role in preserving Lithuanian yeshivas during the Communist era, and Polish and Russian yeshivas of Poland and during the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, when he arranged for these yeshivas to relocate to Lithuanian cities.

Biography

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was born on 9 Elul 5623 (24 August 1863) in Iwye, Belarus, a small town near Vilnius. His father, David Shlomo Grodzinski, was rabbi of Iwye for over 40 years, and his grandfather was rabbi of the town for 40 years before that.

When he was 12 years old he went to study with the perushim, a group of Lithuanian Torah scholars in Eishyshok where he became bar mitzvah.

At the age of 15, he began studying at the Volozhin yeshiva and was accepted into Chaim Soloveitchik's shiur. He was married in his early twenties.

Two years after his marriage, Grodzinski's father-in-law, Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnenski died and Grodnenski replaced him as a rabbi in Vilnius.

Leadership

In 1887 he was appointed as a dayan (religious judge) of the beth din of Vilna. He was a participant in the founding conference of Agudath Israel (in Kattowitz, Silesia, in 1912) and served on the party's Council of Sages. He also was a co-founder and active leader of the Va'ad ha-Yeshivot (Council of the Yeshivot), based in Vilnius, an umbrella organization that offered material and spiritual support for yeshivot throughout the eastern provinces of Poland from 1924 to 1939.

In addition to his communal work, he maintained a strict schedule of Torah learning, producing his monumental, three-volume work Achiezer even as he was fully involved in communal affairs.

He did not have his own yeshiva but assisted in the management of the Rameilles Yeshiva of Vilnius. He also established a kibbutz (group) of elite young Torah scholars, all known as iluyim (prodigies), and gave them shiurim on obscure Talmud topics. His students included Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky, Rabbi Eliezer Silver, Rabbi Moshe Shatzkes, and Rabbi Reuven Katz.

He was also the person who helped rabbi yitzchak rubinstein become the chief Rabbi of Vilna, a job which the Russian government required from all Jewish communities, but Reb Chaim couldn't join as he didn't have the education required by the government to take the job

With the death of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchonon Spektor in 1896, Grodzinski became the leader of European Jewry. He was consulted regularly in the fight for traditional Torah education in the Russian empire and to counteract the ban against shechitah (ritual slaughter) of kosher meat. Eventually his influence was so strong that no Rav or shochet could be appointed anywhere in Poland or Russia without his consent. Thanks to his phenomenal memory, he remembered names of people and places from all over the world, making him a valuable resource when communities far and wide sought to appoint a new Rav or rosh yeshiva.

Both the communities of Jerusalem and St. Petersburg offered him the position of chief rabbi, but he declined, saying that he was needed where he was. In gratitude for his dedication, the Jewish community of Vilnius wanted to name him the official chief rabbi of Vilnius, but he refused this honor, saying that he had not come to change the city's long-standing tradition not to have a central rav. When the community offered him a pay raise instead, he agreed on condition that all the other rabbis in Vilnius would receive one, too.

In 1909, there was a meeting in Hamburg, Germany, that was destined to become the precursor of Agudas Yisroel. Among the Torah sages present there R. Chaim Brisker, R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, R. Eliezer Gordon, and the Imrei Emes. The main goal of the Agudah was to combat the Zionists and the Mizrachi against Zionism. R. Grodzinski was the first chairman of the Moetzes Gedolei Torah - the rabbinical advisory board to the Agudah.

In a letter, R. Grodzinski explained why the Agudah would not collaborate with the Religious Zionist organization, Mizrachi. “There should also be a joined effort in the communities in the diaspora to unite together all the Haredim against the antireligious front ... it is clear that as long as the Mizrachi is in the framework of the World Zionist Organization, there can be no discussion about a joint between the two organizations (Agudah and Mizrachi)”

When his daughter lay in the hospital on the verge of death, he ran to his office to answer all the halakhic correspondence waiting on his desk, since he knew that he would not be able to research and answer these pressing questions during the week of shivah.

His students were puzzled when he walked with a directions seeker a considerable distance on a snowy day; he later explained that since the person had a lisp he might hesitate to ask clarification since the location was unobvious.

Final years

Grodzinski died of cancer on 9 August 1940 (5 Av 5700). His death was closely preceded by the deaths of two other leaders of Lithuanian-style Orthodox Judaism: Rabbi Shimon Shkop, rosh yeshiva of the Grodno yeshiva, who died on 22 October 1939, and Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Kaminetz, who died on 17 November 1939.

References

1. "A Letter From R'Chaim Ozer". The Jewish Press. March 5, 2021.
2. ^ Rabbi Aharon Sorasky. Glimpses of Greatness: Reb Chaim Ozer Is Klal Yisrael. Hamodia Features, 22 July 2010, p. C3.
3. ^ Brafman, Rabbi Aaron. "Ish HaEshkolos: He led world Jewry from Vilna". The Jewish Observer. Archived from the original on July 21, 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
4. ^ Ben-Sasson, Haim Hillel (2007). "Grodzinski, Ḥayyim Ozer". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 8 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
5. Eisenberg, Ronald (2014). Essential Figures in Jewish Scholarship. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson. p. 241-242.
6. Shapiro, Yaakov. The empty wagon : Zionism's journey from identity crisis to identity theft. p. 718. ISBN 978-1-64255-554-7. OCLC 1156725117.
7. "Biography of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) and his relationship to the Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis charity in Israel". www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
8. Grodzensky, R’ Chaim Ozer Kovetz HaIgros p. 41
9. "Learning From Our Leaders". Pirchei Agudas Yisroel of America. 5 May 2018. p. 4.
10. "Letters". The Jewish Press. June 19, 2013. the 5th of Menachem Av, the yahrzeit of both the AriZal and Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.

v t e Volozhin Yeshiva
Faculty	Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin Eliezer Fried Refael Shapiro Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (Beis Halevi) Chaim Soloveitchik Chaim of Volozhin Yitzchak Volozhin	Location Valozhyn, Belarus
Alumni	Shmuel Alexandrov Meir Bar-Ilan Zelig Reuven Bengis Micha Josef Berdyczewski Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin Hayim Nahman Bialik David Cohen Israel Davidson Alter Asher Droyanov Baruch Epstein Moshe Mordechai Epstein Chaim Ozer Grodzinski Abraham Harkavy Shmuel Yitzchak Hillman Jacob Joseph Nachum Kaplan Chaim Mordechai Katz Abraham Isaac Kook Moyshe Kulbak Moshe Landyski Boruch Ber Leibowitz Aryeh Levin Isser Zalman Meltzer Samuel Mohilever Shlomo Polachek Yitzhak Isaac Halevy Rabinowitz Yitzchak Yaacov Reines Mnachem Risikoff Zundel Salant Refael Shapiro Shimon Shkop Chaim Soloveitchik Zalman Sorotzkin Elchonon Wasserman Kalman Zev Wissotzky
See also: Valozhyn, Belarus

v t e Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah
Europe World Agudath Israel	Past members Avraham Mordechai Alter Meir Arik Dovid Bornsztain Shlomo Zalman Breuer Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky Meir Simcha of Dvinsk Moshe Mordechai Epstein Avraham Yaakov Friedman Chaim Ozer Grodzinski Yisrael Meir Kagan Aharon Kotler Yitzchak Zelig Morgenstern Meir Dan Plotzky Yitzhak Yaakov Rabinovich Sholom Dovber Schneersohn Meir Shapiro Chaim Soloveitchik Zalman Sorotzkin Yehuda Leib Tsirelson Shmuel Dovid Ungar Elchonon Wasserman Menachem Ziemba
Israel Agudat Yisrael Degel HaTorah	Past members Pinchas Menachem Alter Simcha Bunim Alter Yisrael Alter Shlomo Zalman Auerbach Yosef Shalom Eliashiv Aryeh Finkel Nosson Tzvi Finkel Avraham Yaakov Friedman Avraham Yaakov Friedman Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi Yisroel Moshe Friedman Levi Yitzchak Horowitz Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz Isser Zalman Meltzer Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg Yitzchok Scheiner Elazar Menachem Shach Yitzchak Isaac Sher Yochanan Sofer Zalman Sorotzkin Dov Yaffe Shabsi Yogel Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman Gershon Edelstein Baruch Weisbecker Present members Yaakov Aryeh Alter Nachum Dov Brayer Menachem Mendel Hager Yisroel Hager Zvi Elimelech Halberstam Mayer Alter Horowitz Yissachar Dov Rokeach Moshe Hillel Hirsch Dov Lando Baruch Dov Povarsky Yitzchok Zilberstein Eliezer Yehuda Finkel
United States Agudath Israel of America	Past members Dovid Feinstein Moshe Feinstein Mordechai Shlomo Friedman Mordechai Gifter Refael Reuvain Grozovsky Shlomo Heiman Levi Yitzchak Horowitz Yitzchok Hutner Yaakov Kamenetsky Chaim Mordechai Katz Aharon Kotler Shneur Kotler Avraham Yaakov Pam Yaakov Perlow Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman Gedalia Schorr Eliezer Silver Joseph B. Soloveitchik Baruch Sorotzkin Yisrael Spira Elya Svei Mendel Zaks Aaron Schechter Present members Elya Brudny Hillel David Aharon Feldman Yosef Chaim Frankel Aharon Dovid Goldberg Yaakov Horowitz Shmuel Kamenetsky Malkiel Kotler Shlomo Miller Yerucham Olshin Yosef Harari Raful Yitzchok Sorotzkin Shimon Yehuda Svei
Category

• 1863 births
• 1940 deaths
• People from Iwye
• Belarusian Haredi rabbis
• Lithuanian Haredi rabbis
• 19th-century Lithuanian rabbis
• 20th-century Lithuanian rabbis
• Anti-Zionist Haredi rabbis
• Deaths from cancer in Lithuania
• Rabbis from Vilnius