ר׳ אליעזר יהודה ולדנברג

ר׳ אליעזר יהודה ולדנברג (10 December 1915–21 November 2006), universally known from his responsa as the ציץ אליעזר, was a Jerusalem halakhic decisor and rabbinical judge. Born in Jerusalem to ר׳ יעקב גדליה ולדנברג, he studied at Etz Chaim under ר׳ איסר זלמן מלצר and displayed unusual literary productivity while still young, publishing דבר אליעזר in 1934. He helped establish Yeshivat Shaar Zion and served a community near the old Shaare Zedek Hospital, where sustained contact with physicians helped shape his command of medical halakhah. From 1957 he presided over the Jerusalem district rabbinical court and later served on Israel’s Great Rabbinical Court. His multi-volume ציץ אליעזר addresses the full range of practical halakhah and became especially influential in questions of hospitals, surgery, fertility, pregnancy, transplantation and end-of-life care. He also wrote הלכות מדינה on public law in a Jewish state. The Israel Prize in Rabbinical Literature was awarded to him in 1976. He remained rooted in Jerusalem throughout his life, died there aged ninety, and was buried at Har HaMenuchot.