Isser Zalman Meltzer

Isser Zalman Meltzer was born in 1870 in Mir

Meltzer was born in 1870 in Mir, in the Russian Empire, to Baruch Peretz and Mirel of the Hutner family. From age 10 he studied with the rabbi of Mir, Yom Tov Lipmann Baslianski, who raised him in his home. He later studied at the Mir Yeshiva.

In 1884 he entered Volozhin Yeshiva, where he studied for 7 years under the Netziv and Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik. As a student he was active in a secret Hovevei Zion group called Nes Ziona. With his brother-in-law Moshe Mordechai Epstein he was among the founders of Hadera, where he bought land and planted etrog orchards.

In 1892 he married Bila Hinda Frank, after an engagement during which he studied under the Chofetz Chaim in Radin and fell ill with tuberculosis. Influenced by the Musar movement, he was a student of Nosson Tzvi Finkel and served as rosh yeshiva in Slobodka from 1894 to 1897.

In 1897 he was placed at the head of a new yeshiva in Slutsk, and in 1903 he became rabbi of the city. Under the Soviet regime he was arrested several times, and in 1923 he fled to Kletsk in Poland, where he led the exiled Slutsk Yeshiva with Aharon Kotler. He also founded and edited the journal Yagdil Torah.

In 1925 he became head of Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem and held the post until his death. He lived in Ohel Moshe and was close to Rabbi Kook. He was wounded in the leg during the siege of Jerusalem and died in 1953.