Shlomo Yosef Zevin

Shlomo Yosef Zevin was born in 1886 in Babruysk Voblast

Zevin was born in December 1886 in Kazimirov, where his father, Rabbi Aharon Mordechai, led the local community. He studied at the Mir yeshiva and later in Bobruisk under Rabbi Shemaryahu Noach Schneerson of the Kapust branch of Chabad. He received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Schneerson, the Rogatchover Gaon and Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein.

As a young man he became rabbi of Kazimirov, and later served in Klimovo and Novozybkov. After the Communist Revolution he took part in the underground effort to keep Jewish practice alive in Soviet Russia. From 1921 he edited the journal Yagdil Torah with Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky, and he was imprisoned by the Communist authorities for it.

He settled in the Land of Israel, first in Tel Aviv as rabbi of the Chabad community, and in 1936 moved to Jerusalem. He served on the Council of the Chief Rabbinate. In 1942 he founded the Encyclopedia Talmudit with Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan, and edited every volume published in his lifetime.

He also wrote books on Jewish law, the festivals and Hasidic tales, and corresponded with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. He died on 28 February 1978 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem. A street in Neve Yaakov is named after him.