Meir Atlas

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Rabbi Meir Atlas (1848-1926) was Rabbi of Shavel in Lithuania and one of the founders of the Telz Yeshiva. He was an outstanding halachic authority who authored many responsa and was one of the foremost Lithuanian Rabbis of his time.

Rabbi Meir Atlas was born in 1848 in Baisagola, Lithuania. In 1875, together with Rabbi Zvi Yaakov Oppenheim, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Abel and with the assistance of a German Jew, Ovadyah Lachman, he founded the Telz Yeshiva. He was later Rabbi in Libau in Latvia, Salant in Lithuania and Kobryn in Belarus. In 1904 Rabbi Atlas was appointed Rabbi to the community of Shavel.

His brother was Rabbi Eliezer Atlas. One of his sons in law was Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman. Another was Rabbi Yehudel Kahana Shapiro, the son of Rabbi Zalman Sender Kahana Shapiro. His son was Shmuel Atlas of the Hebrew Union College. Rabbi Atlas died in 1926.

[edit] References

• Otzar Harabanim (Rabbis' Encyclopedia), Rabbinate era from 970 to 1970; #12756, by Rabbi Nathan Zvi Friedman, Bnei Brak 1975.