Ephraim Oshry
| Rabbi Ephraim Oshry | |
|---|---|
| Position | Rabbi |
| Synagogue | Beth Hamedrash Hagadol |
| Successor | Rabbi Mendel Greenbaum |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1914 |
| Died | September 28, 2003 (aged 94–95) New York City |
| Yahrtzeit | 2nd Day Rosh Hashana |
| Buried | Jerusalem |
| Denomination | Orthodox Judaism |
Ephraim Oshry (1914–2003), was an Orthodox rabbi, posek, and author of The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry. He was one of the few European rabbis to survive the Holocaust.
Ephraim Oshry was born in Kupiškis, Lithuania. He studied alongside some of the most prominent and revered Jewish leaders and rabbis of his time, most notably Rabbi Avraham Duber Kahana Shapiro (author of Devar Avraham).
When the Nazis invaded Kaunas in 1941 during World War II, Oshry's community was forced into the Kaunas Ghetto and Concentration Camp.
In his book, The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, Oshry tells his story of living through the Holocaust. He related in horrific detail how the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators viciously murdered Jews, but he also focused on the spiritual life of the Jews living in the Kovno Ghetto and concentration camp. Despite being starved and beaten, the Jews continued to study Torah in secret, and risked their lives in order to fulfill the mitzvot (God's commandments).
While in the Kovno Ghetto and concentration camp, Oshry began writing his responsa regarding the Holocaust, answering difficult questions in such subjects as human nature, God, and Jewish ethics. Before the final battle between the Nazis and the Soviets, Oshry buried his responsa in the ground. After the war, he retrieved them, and in 1959, he published some of the Hebrew responsa under the title She'eilos Uteshuvos Mima'amakim (Questions and Responses from the Depths). This volume was later followed by four additional volumes, the final one being published in 1979. An English volume of the original work (adbridged, with much of the halakhic argumentation removed), was published, titled Responsa from the Holocaust.
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