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   B Karman on December 6, 2023 at 2:54 am

   From Halusk to Bangor
   Harav Yehudah Leib Seltzer, zt”l, was born in Halusk (Hlusk), Belarus, in 5629/1869, to his father, Harav Yitzchak, a noted talmid chacham, and his mother, Chaya Masha Rachmilewitz, the daughter of Harav Yehudah Leib, the Rav of Halusk.
   At a young age, he learned in Volozhin, and later in the kibutz in Eishishok (Eišiškės), the Kovna Kollel, and in the Opatav Kloiz established in Vilna by Harav Chaim Ozer Godzinski, zt”l, for the brilliant young scholars of that era.
   Rav Yehudah Leib was chosen by Harav Yerucham Doberov, zt”l, a rosh yeshiva in Slutzsk, to marry his stepdaughter Tirtzah (née Goldberg), and they settled in Slutzsk where his wife supported him as he continued learning. He received semichah from Harav Yaakov Dovid Willowsky (Ridvaz), zt”l, the Rav of Slutzsk, and was one of two lomdim he mentions in his pirush of Yerushalmi (Tosfos haRid, Maseches Sotah), the other being Harav Baruch Ber Lebowitz, zt”l. Whenever Rav Yaakov Dovid left Slutzsk, he would appoint Rav Yehudah Leib to answer sheilos in his place.
   He also received semichah from Harav Tzvi Hirsh Mah Yafis, Rav of Vilkovisk (Vaŭkavysk, Belarus), who described Rav Yehudah Leib’s mental prowess as a “double edged sword.”
   In 1903, he emigrated to the United States and assumed the position as the first of Rav of Congregation Beth Israel of Bangor, Maine. In 1905, devoted much time and energy to collect funds throughout the region for the Committee for the Relief of Russian Jews after the pogroms of 1905.
   In 1906 through 1911, he assumed the Rabbanus in Paterson, NJ, and when he realized that there was not sufficient chinuch for his children, he embarked on a journey to Eretz Yisrael, where he saw to it that his sons would be educated under the tutelage of the Ridvaz in Tzefas. During his stay, he printed his Sefer Masa Yehudah, a collection of his drashos and essays concerning the issues facing Klal Yisrael at the time. He then returned to America, while leaving his children to continue their learning in Eretz Yisrael with his wife remaining there to oversee their welfare.
   Upon his return to the United States, he became the Rav of Congregation Shaarei Zedek in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and then assumed a position in Bridgeport, Connecticut from 1921 until 1924. For the next thirty-five years, he was the executive director, and later president, of the Agudas Harabbanim, and used his oratory skills to express the opinions of the Orthodox Rabbanim throughout the United States and Canada. He represented the Agudas Harabbanim at the Knessiah Gedolah of Agudas Yisrael in Vienna in 1929.
   In 1936, Rav Yehudah Leib petitioned NYS Senator Robert Wagner to assist with the immigration of a young Rav who was fleeing persecution in the Soviet Union. On December 5, 1936, Senator Wagner wrote to Rav Seltzer that the immigration of Rabbi Moses Feinstein will be viewed favorably. Thus, Rav Seltzer was instrumental in helping Hagaon Harav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, escape Europe and immigrate to the United States.
   In 1954, he returned to Eretz Yisrael, and during those years he delivered a weekly shiur in Kollel Ateres Yosef in Tel Aviv. With the help of his son in law, Harav Moshe Don Sheinkopf, zt”l (who had been a rosh yeshiva in New Haven and Torah Vodaas, and later Rav in Springfield, Massachusetts), he published his teshuvos under the title of Vzos Leyehudah, which he was zocheh to see just two weeks before his petirah at age 90 on 18 Elul, 5719/September 21, 1959.