Tzvi Pesach Frank

Tzvi Pesach Frank was born in 1873 in Kaunas

Frank was born in Kovno in 1873. His parents, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Frank and Malka, were active in Hovevei Zion, and his father was among the founders of Hadera. He studied at Lithuanian yeshivas, including Slobodka and Telz, where he was close to Rabbi Eliezer Gordon.

He moved to the Land of Israel and continued his studies at Jerusalem yeshivas such as Torat Chaim and Etz Chaim. He grew close to Rabbi Shmuel Salant and later to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook in Jaffa. In 1895 he married Gita Malka, daughter of Rabbi David Shapira.

In 1907 he became a judge on the Ashkenazi rabbinical court in Jerusalem, and in 1918 he became its head. During World War I he held public roles and hid in the city when an expulsion order was issued against American subjects. He helped establish the Chief Rabbinate and sat on its council from 1921.

As a decisor he wrote the responsa work Har Tzvi. His rulings on kitniot derivatives on Passover, imported powdered milk and gelatin became policy of the Jerusalem rabbinate. He died in 1960 and was buried on Har HaMenuchot.