Klatzko (Melzer), Mordecai ben Asher

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KLATZKO (Melzer), MORDECAI BEN ASHER

KLATZKO (Melzer ), MORDECAI BEN ASHER (1797–1883), Lithuanian rabbi and author. Klatzko was born in Vilna where he studied under *Ḥayyim of Volozhin. He married the daughter of R. Loeb Malzer (Melzer), later adopting his surname. In 1840 he was appointed head of the R. Meilis yeshivah in Vilna, succeeding Israel *Salanter who had headed it for a short period. From 1865 Klatzko served as rabbi in Lida until his death. At an advanced age he became a follower of the ḥasidic movement and led an ascetic life, devoting much attention to the needs of his fellow men. Some of his responsa and talmudic novellae were published by his pupil Abba Joseph Triwusch, together with a biographical introduction, under the title Tekhelet Mordekhai (1889).

bibliography:

Ḥ.N. Maggid-Steinschneider, Ir Vilna (1900), 122–7; idem, in: Oẓar ha-Sifrut, 4 (1892), 531–41; S.M. Chones, Toledot ha-Posekim (1910), 598–600; D. Katz, Tenu'at ha-Musar, 1 (1958), 148f.; 4 (1963), 153f.; Yahadut Lita, 3 (1967), 84.

[Samuel Abba Horodezky]

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