ר׳ אליהו לופיאן

ר׳ אליהו לופיאן (1876–21 September 1970), widely called ר׳ אלי׳, was one of the twentieth century's most influential transmitters of the Kelm school of Mussar. Born in Grajewo to Yaakov and Frida Lopian, he remained in Łomża to study when his family emigrated to the United States, then entered the Kelm Talmud Torah and learned under ר׳ שמחה זיסל זיו and ר׳ יצחק בלאזר. He married Sarah Leah, daughter of ר׳ יצחק דוד רוטמן, and became a central teacher and institutional leader in Kelm. During the First World War he remained with students and continued teaching; afterward he traveled through Lithuanian communities encouraging students to return and helped rebuild the yeshiva. In the later 1920s he settled in London and served at Etz Chaim Yeshiva in the East End alongside ר׳ נחמן שלמה גרינשפן, shaping generations of British rabbinic students. He immigrated to Israel in 1950, taught Mussar in Jerusalem, and in 1951 became the spiritual director of Knesses Chizkiyahu, first at Zikhron Ya'akov and from 1955 at Kfar Hasidim. His demanding Kelm discipline was joined to close personal concern for students. His talks were edited posthumously by his student ר׳ שלום מרדכי הכהן שבדרון as לב אליהו, an enduring anthology of Torah interpretation, faith and ethical self-examination. He died in Jerusalem on 20 Elul 5730 and was buried on the Mount of Olives.