(“The Minchas Eluzur,” 1872-1937). Autograph Letter Signed written in Hebrew on letterhead to Rabbi Yehoshua Baumol.

SHAPIRA, CHAIM ELAZAR

12th Tamuz

Munkács

1921

Semicha award, testifying to the Rabbi’s great learning and praising his deep-seated piety.

R. Chaim Elazar Shapira of Munkacz (1872-1937) was the son of the Darchei Teshuva (R. Tzvi Hirsch Spira) and a leading Hungarian Admor prior to World War II. Known for profound rabbinic scholarship, he utilized his fiery personality to zealously fight against modernizing influence and assimilation. R. Yehoshua Baumol (1880-1948) moved to the United States, where he was appointed rabbi of Congregation Adas Jeshurun in Williamsburg. A respected posek, he was the authority to whom R. Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz turned for a halachic ruling in regard to the questionable influence in Yeshiva Torah Vodaas of R. Chaim Avraham Dov Ber Levine HaCohen ("The Malach.") See Responsa Emek Halacha, Vol II, resp. no. 28. Rabbi Baumol’s grandson was the late Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva University.