This is an interesting book. Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky was the leading Rabbinical Posek (Rabbi who makes Jewish legal decisions) and spiritual guide of his generation. He was born in 1863 and by the end of the nineteenth century he was a key leader of European Jewry, living in Vilna, Lithuania. His book, Shaylos VeTeshuvos Achiezer is an important work of Halachic (pertaining to Jewish Law) questions and answers. His pupils included the Dayanim Yechezkel Abramsky and Michoel Fisher of the London Beth Din, and Rabbi Avigdor Amiel of Antwerp, Belgium and later Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv. Rabbi Chaim Ozer died of cancer after the start of World War II, and on the eve of the Holocaust in Lithuania, on 9th August 1940.
This book was produced in London at the height of the War, in 1942 published by the Keren HaTorah Committee, and printed by Israel Narodiczky in Whitechapel. My copy has its original green paper binding, as issued.
It includes essays, in honour of Rabbi Chaim Ozer by a number of important Rabbonim. These are:
- Dayan Yechezkel Abramsky, the Head of the Beth Din (Rabbinical Court) of London. I have previously written about his book Eretz Yisroel, and about Sefer HaYeled, also published by the Keren Hatorah Committee under Dayan Abramsky and printed for orthodox Jewish children who had been evacuated to the countryside. In his foreword Dayan Abramsky write about the passing of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski at the beginning of the Holocaust.
- Rabbi Yitzchak Kosovsky. He was married to Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski’s sister, and had been a Rabbi in Lithuania, Russia, and Bielorus befor accepting a position in Johannesburg, South Africa.
- Rabbi Isser Yehuder Unterman who was then a Rabbi in Liverpool and would later become Chief Rabbi of Israel.
- Rabbi Nachman Shlomo Greenspan, who was the Rosh Yeshiva of Etz Chaim in London. I have previously written about Rabbi Greenspan and HaChaim, which was the magazine of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva.
- Rabbi Moshe Eliyahu Rogoznitzki, who had been the Dayan of Leipzig, and had come to Britain to be the Rabbi of Cardiff, Wales.
- Rabbi Arieh Ze’ev Horowitz of London.
I have scanned the entire book, which is reproduced (for those who read Hebrew) below:
Sir
Thanks
There must be a mistake the last article is from reb aryeh zev Horowitz I am hundred per cent sure that the writer is rabbi aryeh zev gurwitz who was at the time rov of the great garden shul in the east end and afterwards the rosh hayeshivah of Gateshead
Kind regards
Moishe kraus London
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I think that R. Moishe Kraus is correct. I searched for a prominent Rabbi Aryeh Zev Horowitz and could not find one. Rav Gurwitz was Rav of the Great Garden Street Shul until 1948 when he went to Gateshead. H becomes G in Russian, so that Horowitz or Hurwitz becomes Gurwitz. I wonder if the mistake (if this is correct) came from Dayan Abramsky, or from the Printer?