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Ephraim Oshry
 
 
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Ephraim Oshry (1914-2003), author of The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, was one of the few European rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
s and posek
Posek

Posek is the term in Halakha for "decider"?a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive....
s to survive the Holocaust
The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as , Churben is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler....
.

Born in Kupiškis
Kupiškis

Kupi?kis is a city in north-western Lithuania. it is the capital of the Kupi?kis district municipality. Kupi?kis is situated on the Levuo River and Kupa River, Lithuania....
, Lithuania
Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest....
 in 1914, he studied alongside some of the most prominent and revered Jewish leaders and rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
s of his time. When the Nazis invaded Kaunas
Kaunas

Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania and a Temporary capital of Lithuania. It is served by the freeways European route E67 and A1 highway ....
 in 1941 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, Oshry's community was forced into the Kaunas Ghetto
Kaunas Ghetto

The Kaunas Ghetto was a ghetto established by Nazi Germany to hold the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas during the Holocaust. At its peak, the Ghetto held 30,000 people, most of whom were later sent to Concentration camps and Extermination camps, or were shot at the Ninth Fort....
 and Concentration Camp.

In his book, The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, Oshry tells his story of living through the Holocaust.






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Ephraim Oshry (1914-2003), author of The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, was one of the few European rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
s and posek
Posek

Posek is the term in Halakha for "decider"?a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive....
s to survive the Holocaust
The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as , Churben is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler....
.

Born in Kupiškis
Kupiškis

Kupi?kis is a city in north-western Lithuania. it is the capital of the Kupi?kis district municipality. Kupi?kis is situated on the Levuo River and Kupa River, Lithuania....
, Lithuania
Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest....
 in 1914, he studied alongside some of the most prominent and revered Jewish leaders and rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
s of his time. When the Nazis invaded Kaunas
Kaunas

Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania and a Temporary capital of Lithuania. It is served by the freeways European route E67 and A1 highway ....
 in 1941 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, Oshry's community was forced into the Kaunas Ghetto
Kaunas Ghetto

The Kaunas Ghetto was a ghetto established by Nazi Germany to hold the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas during the Holocaust. At its peak, the Ghetto held 30,000 people, most of whom were later sent to Concentration camps and Extermination camps, or were shot at the Ninth Fort....
 and Concentration Camp.

In his book, The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, Oshry tells his story of living through the Holocaust. Besides the horrific details of how the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators viciously murdered innocent Jews, Oshry focuses on the spiritual life of the Jews living in the Kaunas Ghetto and Concentration Camp; these tortured Jews, despite being starved and beaten, continued to study Torah in secret and to risk their lives in order to fulfill God's commandments.

While in the Kaunas Ghetto and Concentration Camp, Oshry began writing his responsa
History of Responsa

History of responsa in Judaism spans a period of 1,700 years. Responsa#In Judaism constitute a special class of rabbinic literature, differing in form, but not necessarily in content, from Rabbinic commentaries devoted to the exegesis of the Tanakh, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and halakha ....
 to the Holocaust, answering very difficult questions concerning human nature, God, and Jewish ethics. Before the final battle between the Nazis and the Soviets, Oshry buried his responsa. After the war, he retrieved them and they were published in Hebrew under the title: She'eilos Uteshuvos Mima'amakim. There is also an abbreviated version in English (with much of the halakhic argumentation removed): Responsa from the Holocaust.

After Kaunas was liberated in August 1944, Oshry and his wife Frieda Greenzwieg, a survivor of Auschwitz, went to Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
. There Oshry started a yeshiva for orphaned refugee children. In 1950 he brought with him all of his yeshiva students when he and his family moved to Montreal. They came to New York in 1952 where Oshry became the rabbi of Beth Hamedrash Hagadol. Oshry opened two yeshivas in the East Bronx. Also Yeshiva Shaar Ephraim is named after him and is run by Oshry's son-in-law.

Oshry died on September 28, 2003 in New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
; he was survived by his wife and nine children.