Chaim Ozer Grodzensky

1863–1940

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.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

Primary Source

A Call for the Assistance of the Refugees from Germany

Public Access
Text
The situation of our brethren in Germany is so frightful that it is unparalleled since the Middle Ages and the time of the decrees of 1648 and 1649. [ . . . ] In “cultured” Germany an enemy has arisen…

Primary Source

On the Issues of the Economic Boycott of Germany

Public Access
Text
[ . . . ] In regard to the boycott [of German goods], in my view, the rabbis ought to have stood aloof, at a distance, and not to have involved themselves with this at all, as this is an issue…

Primary Source

On the Transfer of the Rabbinical Seminary from Berlin to Eretz Yisrael

Public Access
Text
[ . . . ] I wrote yesterday to my friend, the illustrious rabbi, our teacher, Rabbi S. Ahronson, and to Rabbi Meir Hildesheimer himself, may his light shine, in a sharp tone, making it clear that I…

Primary Source

When You Suffer, They Shall Find You

Public Access
Text
The time (in which we live) is truly “a time to work for the Almighty,” and great is the responsibility now falling upon every Jew with the ability to do so. [ . . . ] All the lands of the diaspora…

Primary Source

Responsa of Achiezer

Public Access
Text
[ . . . ] During the Middle Ages and the decrees of the year 5408 [1648], when our brethren the children of Israel believed with real faith in the Almighty and in His…