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Moshe Shatzkes (Hebrew:משה שאצקס; 1881 – December 29, 1958) was arabbi and renownedTalmudic scholar, commonly known as theŁomża Rov".
Shatzkes was born inVilnius,Lithuania in 1881. His father, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Shatzkes, was the spiritual leader of Vilnius who was known as the "Illui mi Zhetel"[1] (the Genius fromDzyatlava).
When Shatzkes was three years old his father died and soon after his mother marriedYitzchak Blazer. Shatzkes studied at theSlabodka andTelz yeshivas. In 1904, he receivedsemicha (rabbinical ordination) fromRefael Shapiro,Eliezer Gordon, and Eliezer Rabinowitz.[1] His son in law was the great talmid of Yeshivas Chaim Berlin, R Tzvi Hersh Levenberg.
His first rabbinical position was in Lipnishuk,[1] near Vilnius, in 1909. In 1914, he was appointed rabbi of the nearby larger town ofIwye.[1]
He was regularly invited by theChafetz Chaim to important rabbinic gatherings. He was vice-president of the Agudath HaRabbanim in Poland.
In 1931 he became rabbi andAv Beth Din ofŁomża.[1] His time in Łomża was marked by anti-Jewish demonstrations, the outlawing ofkosher slaughtering and a boycott of Jewish shops. Many Łomża Jews fled and the community gradually declined. With theHitler-Stalin pact in August 1939 on the division of Poland, Łomża was transferred to theSoviet 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 ofGrodno, had fled to Vilnius. After Shkop's death Shatzkes was appointed by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski to succeed him asrosh 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 fromChiune Sugihara, the Japanese temporary consul inKovno. Arriving inKobe 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 entireMir Yeshiva, who had fled Poland and Lithuania.
He befriended the Japanese scholarSetzuso 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 therebbe ofAmshinov,Shimon Sholom Kalish) to the Japanese government.
Shatzkes reached America in 1941. He was immediately appointed a senior Rosh Yeshiva atRabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary,[1] remaining in this role for the rest of his life. He also served as a council member of theAgudath HaRabbanim of the United States and Canada.
Along withJoseph B. Soloveitchik andSamuel Belkin, Shatzkes was a member of the Rabbinical Ordination Board at the seminary, grantingsemicha to 425 of its graduates.
Shatzkes was a friend ofYitzchak Halevi Herzog, chief rabbi of Israel, and had been a friend of both theChofetz Chaim andChaim Ozer Grodzinski before theSecond World War. He delivered eulogies at both their funerals.
He died on December 29, 1958, inBrooklyn, New York, at the age of 77.
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