ORNSTEIN, MORDECAI ZE’EV

Lemberg

29th January, 1811

Autograph letter signed in German “Marcus Wolf Ornstein” and Hebrew “Mordecai Ze’ev Ornstein.” Löbl[ich] jüd. Gemeinvorsteheramt [Addressed to the Office of the Head of the Jewish Community], concerning property claims by the rabbi’s wife, Lanna, daughter of the wealthy Fischel Meises

Rabbi Mordecai Ze’ev Ornstein (1790-1837) was the only son of perhaps the greatest halachist of the day, R. Jacob Meshullam Ornstein (1775-1839), author of “Yeshu’oth Ya’akov.” Mordecai Ze’ev was gifted in his own right and indubitably would have one day inherited the rabbinate of Lemberg (Lvov), Galicia from his illustrious father were it not for his tragic, untimely death at age forty-seven. As things turned out, Mordecai’s son, Zevi Hirsch (author responsa Birkat Rz”h) inherited his grandfather’s position as rabbi of Lemberg. Some of R. Mordecai Ze’ev’s responsa appear in his father’s collection, Yeshu’oth Ya’akov. Rabbi Mordecai Ze’ev was regarded as the driving force in the war against the circle of maskilim (“enlightened Jews”) that formed in Lemberg. EJ, Vol. XII, cols. 1473-5