Isser Yehuda Unterman

Isser Yehuda Unterman was born in 1886 in Brest

Unterman was born in Brisk to Eliyahu and Sheina Unterman. He was named after the city's rabbi, Isser Yehuda Malin. As a child he studied with the local rabbi and judge Simcha Zelig Riger.

In 1898 he joined the founding group of the Etz Chaim yeshiva in Maletz, where he studied under Rabbi Shimon Shkop. After marrying Rachel Leah Yellin, he studied at the Volozhin kollel and was ordained there by Rabbi Raphael Shapiro. He then served as a rabbi in several Lithuanian communities and later in Grodno.

He supported the Mizrachi movement and spoke against the Uganda Plan at its 1922 conference in Poland. In 1923 he became the rabbi of Liverpool, where he set up an umbrella body for local communities and founded a Torah academy. During World War II he helped Jewish refugees from Germany held in detention.

In 1945 he became the Ashkenazi rabbi of Tel Aviv, where he founded the Shevet Meyehuda kollel and a special court for agunot. He was elected to the Chief Rabbinate Council in 1955 and became Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel in 1964. He lost the 1972 election to Rabbi Shlomo Goren.

Unterman died in 1976 and was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. He and his wife had 7 children. Streets in several Israeli cities bear his name.