Rav Bentzion Chaim Zilber (Tziyuni), rabbi of Kazan—father of Rav Yitzchak רב בן-ציון חיים זילבר (ציוני), רבה של קזאן — אביו של רב יצחק

He came from Latvia—then the empire's western provinces, from which Jews were expelled in the First World War as "unreliable." So, a refugee, he found himself in Kazan, beyond the Pale of Settlement. He wished to serve the community without pay and live by trade—but had to accept the post of official rabbi, which he held from 1914 until his death. Profit earned on Shabbat he refused.

In 1917 the regime changed, and being a rabbi became dangerous and teaching children Torah a crime. He taught. His son Yitzchak—at home, at night, with the windows curtained: Gemara, halakhah, the order of prayer. The son later wrote in his book To Remain a Jew that everything he held to in the Soviet country—at university, in the camp, at school—had been received from his father in the Kazan apartment.

He died in 1944, in the war, and is buried in the Arskoe cemetery in Kazan beside his wife, Rabbanit Leah Gitl, née Shapiro. His tombstone says that a son was born to him who became the head of a generation of baalei teshuva in the Land of Israel. Beyond the father, Rav Yitzchak's lineage is not traced in sources we can stand behind—and we do not invent it.

His name is carried by his grandson—Rav Bentzion Zilber, Rav Yitzchak's son and student, today the head of Toldot Yeshurun. When people say "Rav Bentzion Zilber" they usually mean the grandson; this article is about the grandfather.