Chaim Ozer Grodzensky
Chaim Ozer (Khayim Oyzer) Grodzensky studied at the Eishishok and Volozhin yeshivas. In 1887, he was appointed as a dayan (religious judge) in Vilna and was offered the title of chief rabbi. A revered halakhic authority, scholar, and a leader of Orthodox Jewry, Grodzensky was one of the founders of Agudas Yisroel (Agudat Israel) in 1912. During and immediately following World War I, he worked in Russia to establish Orthodox organizations; he later continued to advocate on behalf of rabbis persecuted in the Soviet Union. In 1919, he returned to Vilna and helped establish the Va‘ad ha-Yeshivot (Council of Yeshivot) in 1924.