Yehezkel Abramsky

Yehezkel Abramsky was born in 1886 in Svislač District

Yehezkel Abramsky was born in 1886 in the village of Dashkovichy, in the Russian Empire, in what is now Belarus. His father, Mordechai Zalman Abramsky, was a timber merchant. The village had few Jews, so he first studied at home.

He studied at several yeshivas, including Telz and Slabodka, and with Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk. He was ordained as a rabbi at 17. In 1909 he married Reizel, daughter of Rabbi Yisroel Yehonasan Yerushalimsky.

He served as rabbi of Smalyany, Smalyavichy and Slutsk, and opposed Soviet efforts to suppress Jewish religious life. Soviet authorities refused to let him leave to become rabbi of Petah Tikva. He was arrested, sentenced to 5 years of hard labor and sent to Siberia, but was released in 1931 on condition that he leave the country.

At the end of 1931 he settled in London and became rabbi of the Machzike Hadath community. He then headed the London Beth Din until 1951 and wrote Hazon Yehezkel, a commentary on the Tosefta.

In 1951 he retired and moved to the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem. He was one of the heads of the Slabodka yeshiva in Bnei Brak and in 1963 became president of Vaad HaYeshivot. He died in Jerusalem in 1976 and was buried on Har HaMenuchot.