(Cheshvan 13, 5754 / 1993 - 31st Yahrzeit)
Rav Tzvi Shraga Grossbard was born in Visan, Lithuania. His father, Rav Aharon Zev, was an outstanding talmid of the Chofetz Chaim. When Tzvi Shraga was still a youngster, his father was brutally beaten to death by Lithuanian thugs because he refused to inform on a fellow Jew. At the age of nine Tzvi Shraga joined Yeshivas Sha’arei Torah in Grodna. At age fourteen, Rav Tzvi Shraga entered Grodna’s Yeshiva Gedola and formed a close bond with the famed Rav Shimon Shkop. Afterward, he became one of Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz’s select talmidim in Yeshivas Kaminetz, and at the beginning of the Second World War he studied for a year and a half under Rav Doniel Movshovitz in Yeshivas Kelm.
In 1941, Rav Tzvi Shraga left Europe for Eretz Yisrael. There, he joined the Lomza Yeshiva in Petach Tikva headed by his uncle, Rav Abba Grossbard. Rav Tzvi Shraga also became the head of Tel Aviv’s Bais Mussar and developed a strong friendship with Mussar giant, Rav Eliyohu Dessler, who was then spiritual Mashgiach of the Ponovezh Yeshiva. The two men studied b’chavrusa each week in Rav Tzvi Shraga’s home. In 1967 Rav Tzvi Shraga Grossbard became the director of Chinuch Atzmai and he remained at its helm for twenty-five years.
