Rav Mordechai Leib Zuckerman (Cheshvan 20, 5764 / 2003 - 21st Yahrzeit)
Rav Mordechai Leib Zuckerman, mechaber of Meir Einei Yisrael, was born in Smorgon, a city near Vilna. In 1931, he moved to Radin to learn with the Chofetz Chaim. After the petira of the Chofetz Chaim, Rav Mordechai Leib stayed in Radin for eight more years. During the war, he arrived in the Kovna ghetto, where he acted as shamash for Rav Avrohom Grodzinsky, the Mashgiach of Slabodka. As Rav Avrohom’s talmid muvhok, he transcribed his mentor’s discourses and studied with him privately bechavrusa when Rav Avrohom was hospitalized. Subsequently, the Nazis burned down that hospital and Rav Mordechai Leib was the last person to have seen Rav Avrohom alive. When the Nazis decided to liquidate the entire ghetto, Rav Mordechai Leib was saved by a miracle when he hid in a pit with a few others. In 1948, he moved to Yerushalayim. When he settled in Givat Shaul, he accepted the positions of Rav of the Perushim shul and the head of Kollel Chevron there. He occupied those positions for over fifty years.
