Yehezkel Abramsky
Encyclopedia
Yehezkel Abramsky (1886 – September 19, 1976), also affectionately referred to as 'Reb Chatzkel Abramsky', was a prominent and influential Orthodox
rabbi
and scholar, born and raised in Russia
who later headed the London Beth Din
for 17 years.
, the third child and eldest son of Mordechai Zalman Abramsky, a local timber merchant, and his wife, Freydel Goldin of Grodno, and studied at the yeshiva
s of Telz
, Mir
, Slabodka
and particularly Brisk under Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik
. At the age of 17 he became a rabbi, serving, in turn, the communities of Smolyan
, Smolevich and Slutsk
. In 1909 he married Reizel, daughter of Rabbi Moshe Nahum Jerusalimsky, the rabbi of Iehumen, Russia
.
Following the Russian Revolution
, he was at the forefront of opposition to the Communist government's attempts to repress the Jewish religion and culture. As a result the Russian government refused Abramsky permission to leave and take up the rabbinate of Petah Tikva
in Palestine
in both 1926 and 1928.
In 1928, he started a Hebrew
magazine, Yagdil Torah (lit. "Make [the] Torah
Great"), but the authorities closed it after two issues appeared. In 1929, he was arrested and sentenced to five years hard labor in Siberia
. However, in 1931 he was rescued by the German
government under Chancellor Brüning
, who exchanged him for six communists they held.
in 1932, where he was appointed rabbi of the Machzike Hadath
community in London's East End. In 1934, Chief Rabbi
Joseph H. Hertz
persuaded him to become the senior dayan of the London Beth Din, a post he held until he retired to Jerusalem in 1951. The appointment of an East European chareidi rabbi to the London Beth Din was a departure for the United Synagogue
, and started a tradition which continues to the present day. The prestige of the London Beth Din as a world-ranking halachic authority was greatly enhanced with the appointment of Rabbi Abramsky as Rosh Beth Din. Although other renowned talmidei chachamim
served both during and since his time—such as Dayan Aryeh Leib Grosnass (Lev Aryeh) and Dayan Rapaport (Be'er Avrohom), it was Dayan Abramsky above all who established the policies and customs that are followed by the London Beth Din to this day..
Following his retirement from the London Beth Din, he settled in Jerusalem. While living there he also served as a rosh yeshiva
of Slabodka yeshiva in Bnei Brak.
Rabbi Abramsky died in Jerusalem on September 19, 1976 (24 Elul 5736). His funeral was attended by over 40,000 people, making it one of the largest ever seen in the city. He was intered on Har HaMenuchot
.
, and was the grandfather of Professor Samson Abramsky
and Jenny Abramsky
.
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
and scholar, born and raised in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
who later headed the London Beth Din
London Beth Din
The London Beth Din is the Ashkenazi Beth Din of the United Synagogue, the largest Ashkenazi synagogal body in London, England. In its capacity as Court of the Chief Rabbi, it is historically the supreme halakhic Authority for Mitnagdim Ashkenazim several Commonwealth countries and additionally is...
for 17 years.
Rabbinate and scholarship
Yehezkel Abramsky was born near Most and Grodno (Hrodna) in BelarusBelarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, the third child and eldest son of Mordechai Zalman Abramsky, a local timber merchant, and his wife, Freydel Goldin of Grodno, and studied at the yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
s of Telz
Telshe yeshiva
Telshe yeshiva was a famous Eastern European yeshiva founded in the Lithuanian town of Telšiai. After World War II the yeshiva relocated to Wickliffe, Ohio, in the United States and is currently known as the Rabbinical College of Telshe, It is one of the most prominent Haredi institutions of Torah...
, Mir
Mir yeshiva (Poland)
The Mir yeshiva , commonly known as the Mirrer Yeshiva or The Mir, was a Haredi yeshiva located in the town of Mir, Russian Empire...
, Slabodka
Slabodka yeshiva
Hebron Yeshiva, also known as Yeshivas Hevron, or Knesses Yisroel, and originally as Slabodka Yeshiva, is known colloquially as the "mother of yeshivas" and was devoted to high=level study of the Talmud. The yeshiva was located in the Lithuanian town of Slabodka, adjacent to Kovno , now...
and particularly Brisk under Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik
Chaim Soloveitchik
Chaim Soloveitchik , also known as Reb Chaim Brisker, was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the popular Brisker approach to Talmudic study within Judaism. He was born in Volozhin in 1853, where his father, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik served as a lecturer in the famous...
. At the age of 17 he became a rabbi, serving, in turn, the communities of Smolyan
Smolyan
Smolyan is a town and ski resort in the very south of Bulgaria not far from the border with Greece. It is the administrative and industrial centre of the homonymous Smolyan Province...
, Smolevich and Slutsk
Slutsk
Slutsk is a town in Belarus, located on the Sluch River south of Minsk. As of 2010 its population is of 61,400).-Geography:The town is situated in the south-west of its Voblast, not too far from from the city of Soligorsk.-History:...
. In 1909 he married Reizel, daughter of Rabbi Moshe Nahum Jerusalimsky, the rabbi of Iehumen, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Following the Russian Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, he was at the forefront of opposition to the Communist government's attempts to repress the Jewish religion and culture. As a result the Russian government refused Abramsky permission to leave and take up the rabbinate of Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...
in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
in both 1926 and 1928.
In 1928, he started a Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
magazine, Yagdil Torah (lit. "Make [the] Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
Great"), but the authorities closed it after two issues appeared. In 1929, he was arrested and sentenced to five years hard labor in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. However, in 1931 he was rescued by the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
government under Chancellor Brüning
Heinrich Brüning
Heinrich Brüning was Chancellor of Germany from 1930 to 1932, during the Weimar Republic. He was the longest serving Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, and remains a controversial figure in German politics....
, who exchanged him for six communists they held.
London Beth Din
He emigrated to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1932, where he was appointed rabbi of the Machzike Hadath
Machzike Hadath
The Machzike Hadath community synagogue is a Lithuanian, Ashkenazi synagogue founded in 1891.The synagogue, also known as the Spitalfields Great Synagogue, was founded in 1891 in the East End of London, England. In 1893, it merged with the Machzike Shomrei Shabbat Synagogue of Booth Street...
community in London's East End. In 1934, Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
Joseph H. Hertz
Joseph H. Hertz
----Rabbi Joseph Herman Hertz, CH was a Jewish Hungarian-born Rabbi and Bible scholar. He is most notable for holding the position of Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom from 1913 until his death in 1946, in a period encompassing both world wars and The Holocaust.- Early life :Hertz was born in the...
persuaded him to become the senior dayan of the London Beth Din, a post he held until he retired to Jerusalem in 1951. The appointment of an East European chareidi rabbi to the London Beth Din was a departure for the United Synagogue
United Synagogue
United Synagogue is an organisation of London Jews that was founded with the sanction of an Act of Parliament, in 1870. , it remains the largest religious grouping within the British Jewish community and indeed in Europe, covering 62 Orthodox Jewish communities...
, and started a tradition which continues to the present day. The prestige of the London Beth Din as a world-ranking halachic authority was greatly enhanced with the appointment of Rabbi Abramsky as Rosh Beth Din. Although other renowned talmidei chachamim
Talmid Chacham
Talmid Chacham is an honorific title given to one well versed in Jewish law, in effect, a Torah scholar....
served both during and since his time—such as Dayan Aryeh Leib Grosnass (Lev Aryeh) and Dayan Rapaport (Be'er Avrohom), it was Dayan Abramsky above all who established the policies and customs that are followed by the London Beth Din to this day..
Following his retirement from the London Beth Din, he settled in Jerusalem. While living there he also served as a rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
of Slabodka yeshiva in Bnei Brak.
Rabbi Abramsky died in Jerusalem on September 19, 1976 (24 Elul 5736). His funeral was attended by over 40,000 people, making it one of the largest ever seen in the city. He was intered on Har HaMenuchot
Har HaMenuchot
Har HaMenuchot is the largest cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel. It is located at the western edge of the city adjacent to the neighborhood of Givat Shaul, with commanding views of Mevaseret Zion to the north, Motza to the west, and Har Nof to the south.-History:...
.
Genealogy
He had four sons including Professor Chimen AbramskyChimen Abramsky
Chimen Abramsky was emeritus Professor of Jewish Studies at University College London. His first name is pronounced Shimon....
, and was the grandfather of Professor Samson Abramsky
Samson Abramsky
Samson D. Abramsky FRS, FRSE is a computer scientist who currently holds the Christopher Strachey Professorship at Oxford University Computing Laboratory. He is well known for playing a leading role in the development of game semantics...
and Jenny Abramsky
Jenny Abramsky
Dame Jennifer Gita Abramsky, DBE is chairman of the UK's National Heritage Memorial Fund . The NHMF makes grants to preserve heritage of outstanding national importance. Until her retirement from the BBC Jenny Abramsky was its most senior woman employee; she was Director of Audio and Music...
.
Awards
- In 1956, Rabbi Abramsky was awarded the Israel PrizeIsrael PrizeThe Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, for Rabbinical literature.
Works
- Hazon Yehezkel ("The Vision of Yehezkel"), a 24 volume commentary on the ToseftaToseftaThe Tosefta is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the period of the Mishnah.-Overview:...
, written between 1925–1975, acclaimed by both rabbis and academic scholars.
Further reading
- Raphael Loewe, ‘Abramsky, Yehezkel (1886–1976)’, rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 1 December, 2006
- Bergman, Asher and Wallach, Shalom Meir, Haggadah of the Roshei Yeshiva vol 2. ISBN 9781578191420