Rabbi Izaak Rubinstein — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Rabbi Izaak Rubinstein (1880-1945) was one of the leaders of the Mizrahi movement and was the last Chief Rabbi in Vilna of the Mizrahi (the movement of Religious Zionism). He was born in Lithuania, learnt at a yeshiva and completed law school. He founded a network of religious Hebrew schools and yeshivot in Poland and Lithuania. He was the Minister of Jewish affairs in Lithuania and used his influence to fight for the rights of Jews in Europe. From 1922 until the outbreak of World War II, he was a member of the lower house of the Polish parliament.

In 1941 he immigrated to America thanks to the American-Zionist Rescue Committee. In New York he was appointed head of the Yitzhak Elhanan Yeshiva. In America he lobbied on behalf of Polish Jewry. Occasionally he had differences of opinion with Rabbi Haim Ozer Grodzanski, the Chief Rabbi of Agudat Yisrael in Vilna, but nevertheless, he attended Rabbi Haim Ozer's funeral in 1941, in the shadow of the impending war; he eulogized Rabbi Haim Ozer at the graveside: "Rabbi, all our disagreements were for the public good and if I have offended you in any way, I beg you to forgive me."

From: Hamichlol