{{Short description|Lithuanian rabbi and Talmudic scholar (1863–1940)}} {{Infobox Jewish leader |honorific-prefix = Rabbi |name = Chaim Ozer Grodzinski |honorific-suffix = |title = |image = Chaim_Ozer_Grodzinski.jpg |caption = |denomination = [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] |synagogue = |synagogueposition = |yeshiva = |yeshivaposition = |organization = |organizationposition = |began = |ended = |predecessor = |successor = |semicha = |rabbi = |rank = |other_post = Leader of Lithuanian and European Jewry |birth_name = |birth_date = {{birth date|1863|8|24}}<br/>{{nowrap|<small>9 [[Elul]] 5623 [[Anno Mundi|AM]] ([[Hebrew calendar]])</small>}} |birth_place = [[Iwye]], [[Vilna Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] <br/>(now [[Belarus]]) |death_date = {{death date and age|1940|8|9|1863|8|24}}<br/>{{nowrap|<small>5 [[Av (month)|Av]] 5700 [[Anno Mundi|AM]] ([[Hebrew calendar]])</small>}} |death_place = [[Vilnius]], [[Soviet Lithuania]] |buried = |nationality = |residence = |parents = Rabbi David Shlomo Grodzinski |spouse = |children = |occupation = Rav of [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]] |profession = |employer = |alma_mater = [[Volozhin yeshiva]] |signature = |website = }} '''Chaim Ozer Grodzinski'''<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Jewish Press]] |url=https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/features-on-jewish-world/a-letter-from-r-chaim-ozer/2021/03/05 |title=A Letter From R'Chaim Ozer |date=March 5, 2021}}</ref> ({{langx|he|חיים עוזר גראדזענסקי}}; August 24, 1863 – August 9, 1940) was a ''[[Beth din#Officers of a beth din|Av beis din]]'' (rabbinical chief justice), ''[[posek]]'' (halakhic authority), and [[Talmud]]ic scholar in [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for over 55 years.<ref name="glimpses" /> He played an instrumental role in preserving [[Pre-World War II European Yeshivos|Lithuanian yeshivas]] during the [[Soviet Union|Communist era]], and Polish and Russian yeshivas of Poland and during the [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939, when he arranged for these yeshivas to relocate to Lithuanian cities.
[[Image: Reb Chaim Ozer.jpg|thumb|right|200px| Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (right) conversing with Rabbi [[Shimon Shkop]]]]
==Biography== Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was born on 9 [[Elul]] 5623 (24 August 1863)<ref name="glimpses">{{cite news|last=Sorasky|first=Aharon|author-link=Aharon Sorasky|title=Glimpses of Greatness: Reb Chaim Ozer ''Is'' Klal Yisrael|work=[[Hamodia]] Features|date=22 July 2010|page=C3}}</ref> in [[Iwye]], [[Belarus]], a small town near Vilnius. His father, David Shlomo Grodzinski, was rabbi of Iwye for over 40 years,<ref name="glimpses" /> and his grandfather was rabbi of the town for 40 years before that.<ref name="observer" />
When he was 12 years old he went to study with the ''perushim'', a group of Lithuanian Torah scholars in [[Eishyshok]] where he became [[Bar and Bat Mitzvah|bar mitzvah]].<ref name="glimpses" />
At the age of 15, he began studying at the [[Volozhin yeshiva]] and was accepted into [[Chaim Soloveitchik]]'s [[Shiur (Torah)|shiur]].<ref name="glimpses" /> He was married in his early twenties to Leah Grodnenski. Her father, Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnenski, was the head of the [[Beth din|Beth Din]] of Vilna (this was the most senior rabbinical position in Vilna). In 1887, after two years of marriage and at only 23 years old, Grodzinski took over his father-in-law's position, upon the latter's sudden passing.<ref name="glimpses" />
===Leadership=== In 1887 he was appointed as a dayan (religious judge) of the [[beth din]] of Vilna.<ref name="Ben-Sasson">{{cite EJ|last=Ben-Sasson|first=Haim Hillel|title=Grodzinski, Ḥayyim Ozer|volume=8|pages=91-92}}</ref> He was a participant in the founding conference of [[World Agudath Israel|Agudath Israel]] (in [[Katowice|Kattowitz]], Silesia, in 1912) and served on the party's Council of Sages.<ref name="Ben-Sasson"/><ref>Eisenberg, Ronald (2014). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=osM0AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA241 Essential Figures in Jewish Scholarship]''. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson. p. 241-242.</ref> He also was a co-founder and active leader of the [[Va'ad ha-Yeshivot]] (Council of the Yeshivot),<ref name="Ben-Sasson"/> based in Vilnius, an umbrella organization that offered material and spiritual support for yeshivot throughout the eastern provinces of Poland from 1924 to 1939. He wrote a three-volume work ''Achiezer''.<ref name="observer" />
He assisted in the management of the Rameilles Yeshiva of Vilnius. His students included [[Yehezkel Abramsky]], [[Eliezer Silver]], [[Moshe Shatzkes]], and [[Reuven Katz]].<ref name="glimpses" />
In 1909, there was a meeting in Hamburg, Germany, that was the precursor of [[World Agudath Israel|Agudas Yisroel]], whose main goal was to combat the Zionists and the Mizrachi against Zionism.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Yaakov|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1156725117|title=The empty wagon : Zionism's journey from identity crisis to identity theft|date=2018 |isbn=978-1-64255-554-7|pages=718|publisher=Bais Medrash Society |language=En|oclc=1156725117}}</ref> Grodzinski was the first chairman of the Moetzes Gedolei Torah, the rabbinical advisory board to the Agudah.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Biography of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) and his relationship to the Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis charity in Israel|url=https://www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com/Rabbi%20Chaim%20Ozer%20Grodzinski.asp|access-date=2022-01-28|website=www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com}}</ref>
===Death=== Grodzinski died of cancer<ref name="observer">{{cite web|url=http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/achiezer.html |title=Ish HaEshkolos: He led world Jewry from Vilna |last=Brafman |first=Rabbi Aaron |accessdate=14 December 2010 |work=[[The Jewish Observer]] |url-status=usurped |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100721031516/http://www.tzemachdovid.org/gedolim/jo/tpersonality/achiezer.html |archivedate=July 21, 2010 }}</ref> on 9 August 1940 (5 [[Av (month)|Av]]<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Jewish Press]] |url=https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-257/2013/06/19/2 |title=Letters |date=June 19, 2013 |quote= the 5th of Menachem Av, the yahrzeit of both the AriZal and Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.}}</ref> 5700).
==Works== Grodzinski's [[posek|halachic opinion]] was highly regarded among the rabbis of his generation. His best known work is "''Ahiezer''" a collection of his ''"shutim''" ([[Responsa#In_Judaism|responsa]]). The work is known for its lengthy discussions centered on analysis as opposed to final ruling. <ref>See [[:He: חיים עוזר גרודזנסקי#תורתו]] and [[:He: חיים עוזר גרודזנסקי#מספריו]]</ref> In this work he often quotes Rabbi [[Akiva Eiger]]. Other works include two collections of correspondences by Rabbi Grodzinski on more general communal and ''[[Hashkafa|Hashkafic]]'' matters.
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Volozhin Yeshiva}} {{Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grodzinski, Chaim Ozer}} [[Category:1863 births]] [[Category:1940 deaths]] [[Category:Agudat Yisrael]] [[Category:People from Iwye]] [[Category:Belarusian Haredi rabbis]] [[Category:Lithuanian Haredi rabbis]] [[Category:19th-century Lithuanian rabbis]] [[Category:20th-century Lithuanian rabbis]] [[Category:Anti-Zionist Haredi rabbis]] [[Category:Deaths from cancer in Lithuania]] [[Category:Rabbis from Vilnius]] [[Category:Haredi poskim]] [[Category:Volozhin Yeshiva alumni]]