ר׳ שלמה גורן

ר׳ שלמה גורן (1917–1994), born Shlomo Goronchik, was a Polish-born Israeli rabbi, scholar and institution-builder. His family immigrated in 1925 and helped found Kfar Hasidim. A prodigy at Etz Chaim and Hebron yeshivot, he published Nezer HaKodesh while still a teenager and also studied at the Hebrew University. He joined the Haganah in 1936. During the War of Independence he organized religious services, formulated military halakhah and personally worked to recover fallen soldiers for burial. He founded and led the IDF Military Rabbinate, remaining its chief until 1971, and famously sounded the shofar at the Western Wall in June 1967. He then served as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1972 to 1983. His extensive writings address the Jerusalem Talmud, Temple law, Shabbat, festivals, military ethics and the halakhah of the Jewish state.