Meyer Abovitz

Meyer Abovitz (מאיר בן ישעיהו אבוביץ; alternate spelling Meir Abowitz; born 1876 - died 1941) was a Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva active in Mizrachi in Eastern Europe between the Two World Wars.[1]

He studied in Slabodka, Kovno and Radin, and received Semicha (ordination) from Rabbis Moshe Danishevsky, Hirsh Rabinovich, and Malkiel Tannenbaum, respectively holding the positions of Av Beit Din (AB"D) in Slabodka, Kovno and Lomza. [2] He was married to Chana nee Malach; their daughter Rachel Fiege ("Fanny") was married to Rabbi Simcha Wasserman. [3][4]

Rabbi Abovitz was AB"D and Rav in Telatycze (White Russia) and then Lubiezh (Lubcza). The latter was destoyed during the early days of the First World War, and he then relocated to German held Navahrudak, where he headed the Bet Yosef Yeshiva [5]; the Rav there was Meyer Meyerovitz.

Rabbi Abovitz participated in the founding assembly of Mizrachi of Lithuania and Poland, in Vilna, 1919; he was involved in various committees of the movement in Poland between the two World Wars. See Mizrachi in Poland. He was also active in "religious national education" [6] which he saw a counterweight to the Jewish secular schools founded in Navahrudak following the First World War. Despite his involvement with Mizrachi he was also accepted by the Agudath Yisrael.

Navahrudak was occupied by Nazi Germany in July 1941, and Rabbi Abovitz was martyred with the rest of the Jewish population;[7] see Navahrudak: Later history.

He authored two works: Zichron Yeshayahu and Kochvei Ohr. [8]

External links and references

• Abovitz, Meyer (Hebrew), אנציקלופדיה יהודית
• Other references cited there: אנציקלופדיה של הציונות הדתית, א, עמ 2-1; ספר הציונות הדתית, ב, עמ 499