LIFSHITZ, DAVID

LIFSHITZ, DAVID (1907–1993), U.S. rosh yeshivah and rabbinical leader. Lifshitz was born in Minsk and studied under simeon shkop in the Grodno yeshivah and at the Mir yeshivah. In 1935 he succeeded his father-in-law, Joseph Joselowitz, as rabbi of Suwalki where he soon established a yeshivah. Lifshitz became active in all communal affairs and assisted Ḥayyim Ozer Grodzinski of Vilna in safeguarding the interests of Orthodoxy. After the deportation of the Jews of his community by the Nazis, Lifshitz succeeded in immigrating to the United States, where in 1942 he became a roshyeshivah at Chicago's hebrew theological college . In 1945 he was appointed to a similar position at yeshiva university . Lifshitz was active in guiding Orthodox Jewry in its relationship to the State of Israel and urged the religious parties to form a united religious front. He was a member of the presidium of the union of orthodox rabbis , the rabbinical advisory board to torah u-masorah , and a director of Ezrat Torah, which aided rabbis and scholars throughout the world. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: O. Rand, Toledot Anshei Shem (1950), 76f.