Moshe Shatzkes

{{Short description|Lithuanian-Belarusian Orthodox rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and rosh yeshiva}}

{{Multiple issues| {{more citations needed|date=April 2013}} {{One source|date=March 2026}} }} [[File:Moshe Shatzkes.jpeg|thumb]] '''Moshe Shatzkes''' ({{langx|he|משה שאצקס}}; 1881 – December 29, 1958) was a [[rabbi]] and renowned [[Talmud]]ic scholar, commonly known as the [[Łomża]] Rov".

==Early years== Shatzkes was born in [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]] in 1881. His father, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Shatzkes, was the spiritual leader of Vilnius who was known as the "Illui mi Zhetel"<ref name="YU">{{cite web |title=Harav Hagaon R. Moshe Shatzkes ZT"L 1882–1958 |url=https://www.yu.edu/riets/about/mission-history/historic-roshei/moshe-shatzkes |website=YU.EDU |publisher=Yeshiva University |access-date=16 December 2020}}</ref> (the Genius from [[Dzyatlava]]).

When Shatzkes was three years old his father died and soon after his mother married [[Yitzchak Blazer]]. Shatzkes studied at the [[Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael (Slabodka)|Slabodka]] and [[Telz Yeshiva|Telz]] yeshivas. In 1904, he received [[semicha]] (rabbinical ordination) from [[Refael Shapiro]], [[Eliezer Gordon]], and Eliezer Rabinowitz.<ref name="YU" /> His son in law was the great talmid of Yeshivas Chaim Berlin, R Tzvi Hersh Levenberg.

==The Rabbinate== His first rabbinical position was in Lipnishuk,<ref name="YU" /> near Vilnius, in 1909. In 1914, he was appointed rabbi of the nearby larger town of [[Iwye]].<ref name="YU" />

He was regularly invited by the [[Yisrael Meir Kagan|Chafetz Chaim]] to important rabbinic gatherings. He was vice-president of the Agudath HaRabbanim in Poland.

In 1931 he became rabbi and [[Av Beth Din]] of [[Łomża]].<ref name="YU" /> His time in Łomża was marked by anti-Jewish demonstrations, the outlawing of [[shechita|kosher slaughtering]] and a boycott of Jewish shops. Many Łomża Jews fled and the community gradually declined. With the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]] in August 1939 on the division of Poland, Łomża was transferred to the [[Soviet Union]].

Shatzkes escaped the city by night to Vilnius, which was later handed over by the Soviets to Lithuania. Along with many others, [[Shimon Shkop]]'s yeshiva, ''Sha'ar HaTorah'' of [[Grodno]], had fled to Vilnius. After Shkop's death Shatzkes was appointed by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski to succeed him as {{Transliteration|he|rosh yeshiva}}.

Shatzkes was active in refugee and yeshiva affairs while in Vilnius. After the city was re-captured by the Russians, he travelled via Russia to Japan, having received a Japanese permit from [[Chiune Sugihara]], the Japanese temporary consul in [[Kovno]]. Arriving in [[Kobe]] by boat in May 1941, Shatzkes immediately renewed his relief efforts for the almost five thousand Jewish refugees there. They included many yeshiva heads and almost the entire [[Mir Yeshiva (Poland)|Mir Yeshiva]], who had fled Poland and Lithuania.

He befriended the Japanese scholar [[Setzuso Kotsuji]], a friend of Japan's Foreign Affairs minister, and with his help he aided the fleeing of thousands of refugees.

Shatzkes was selected by the refugee community as one of their two representatives (the other being the [[rebbe]] of [[Amshinov (Hasidic dynasty)|Amshinov]], [[Shimon Sholom Kalish]]) to the Japanese government.

Shatzkes reached America in 1941. He was immediately appointed a senior Rosh Yeshiva at [[Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary]],<ref name="YU" /> remaining in this role for the rest of his life. He also served as a council member of the [[Agudath HaRabbanim]] of the United States and Canada.

Along with [[Joseph B. Soloveitchik]] and [[Samuel Belkin]], Shatzkes was a member of the Rabbinical Ordination Board at the seminary, granting {{Transliteration|he|semicha}} to 425 of its graduates.

Shatzkes was a friend of [[Yitzchak Halevi Herzog]], chief rabbi of Israel, and had been a friend of both the [[Yisrael Meir Kagan|Chofetz Chaim]] and [[Chaim Ozer Grodzinski]] before the [[Second World War]]. He delivered eulogies at both their funerals.

==Death== He died on December 29, 1958, in [[Brooklyn, New York]], at the age of 77.

==References==

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shatzkes, Moshe}} [[Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Yeshiva University rosh yeshivas]] [[Category:American Orthodox rabbis]] [[Category:Lithuanian Orthodox rabbis]] [[Category:1881 births]] [[Category:1958 deaths]] [[Category:Burials at Har HaMenuchot]] [[Category:Rabbis from Lomza]] [[Category:20th-century Lithuanian rabbis]] [[Category:20th-century American rabbis]]