Moshe Shatzkes - The Rabbinate

The Rabbinate

His first Rabbinical position was in Lipnishuk, near Vilna, in 1909. Within five years, in 1914, he was appointed rabbi of the nearby larger town of Iwye, in the district of Vilna. There, he excelled as a communal fundraiser, innovator and well-liked leader.

He was also famed for his wit and wisdom and he was regularly invited by the Chafetz Chaim to important Rabbinic gatherings. His fame spread throughout Poland through his vice-presidency of the Agudath HaRabbanim in Poland, and many people turned to him with their Halachic questions.

In 1931, he was asked to become rabbi and Av Beth Din of Łomża. He had been proposed for the position by his mentor, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, with whom he was very close. His time in Łomża was not an easy one. It was marked by anti-Jewish demonstrations, the outlawing of Shechita and a boycott of Jewish shops. Łomża Jews fled in droves and the community gradually declined. With the Hitler-Stalin pact in August 1939 on the division of Poland, Łomża was transferred into Russian hands and Soviet tanks soon rolled in.

Shatzkes escaped the city under cover of darkness to Vilna, which was later handed over by the Soviets to Lithuania. Along with many others, Rabbi Shimon Shkop's yeshiva, Sha'ar HaTorah of Grodno, had fled to Vilna. After the death of Rabbi Shkop, Shatzkes was appointed by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski to succeed him as rosh yeshiva.

Shatzkes was active in refugee and yeshiva affairs while in Vilna. After the city was re-captured by the Russians, he travelled via Russia to Japan, having received a Japanese permit from Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese temporary consul in Kovno. Arriving in Kobe by boat in May 1941, Shatzkes immediately renewed his relief efforts for the almost five thousand Jewish refugees there. They included many yeshiva heads and almost the entire Mir Yeshiva, who had fled Poland and Lithuania.

He befriended the famous Japanese scholar, Professor Setzuso Kotsuji, a friend of Japan's Foreign affairs minister, and with his help he aided the fleeing of thousands of refugees.

Owing to his reputation as a brilliant Talmudic scholar and his previous position as Rabbi of Łomża, Shatzkes was selected by the refugee community as one of their two representatives (the other being the rebbe of Amshinov) to the Japanese Gorvernment.

Shatzkes reached America in 1941. He was immediately appointed to become a senior Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS, remaining in this role for the last eighteen years of his life. He turned down an invitation by Rabbi Herzog to join the chief rabbinate in Palestine, preferring to learn and spread Torah. He also served as a council member of the Agudath HaRabbanim of the United States and Canada.

Along with Rabbis Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Samuel Belkin, Shatzkes served as a member of the Rabbinical Ordination Board at RIETS, granting Semicha to 425 of its graduates.