Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzenski רבי חיים עוזר גרודזנסקי
for half a century a dayan and the unofficial head of Vilna, head of the Vaad haYeshivos
He became a dayan of Vilna at about twenty-three and remained in the Vilna beit din for fifty-three years, until his death. He refused to become chief rabbi: his authority did not come from a title. His Achiezer—three volumes of responsa, published in 5682, 5685 and 5699—is read for its third preface as much as for its rulings; written on the eve of the war, it speaks of what was coming in a way that reads differently after 5700 than it did before.
From 5684 he headed the Vaad haYeshivos, the council that fed and defended the yeshivos of Lithuania and eastern Poland. When Vilna passed to Lithuania in 5700 he gathered the Polish yeshivos there, obtained passports and visas through the American Vaad Hatzalah, and planned the eastward road by the Trans-Siberian railway. He was offered a way out for himself; he refused, and died in Vilna weeks before Lithuanian independence ended.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Responsa “Achiezer” — three volumes of responsa, 5682, 5685 and 5699
- The preface to the third volume of “Achiezer”, 5699 — written on the eve of the war
Documents of the period
- Records of the Vaad haYeshivos, 5684–5700 — the upkeep of the yeshivos and the removal of students in 5700
Basis: documents and evidence.