Ephraim Oshry

Responsa While in the Kaunas Ghetto and concentration camp, Oshry began writing his responsa regarding the Holocaust, answering difficult questions in such subjects as human nature, God, and Jewish ethics. Before the final battle between the Nazis and the Soviets, Oshry buried his responsa in the ground. After the war, he retrieved them, and in 1959, he published some of the Hebrew responsa under the title She'eilos Uteshuvos Mima'amakim (Questions and Responses from the Depths). This volume was later followed by four additional volumes, the final one being published in 1979. An English volume of the original work (adbridged, with much of the halakhic argumentation removed), was published, titled Responsa from the Holocaust.

Post-war activities After Kaunas was liberated in August 1944, Oshry and his wife Frieda Greenzwieg, a survivor of Auschwitz, went to Rome. There Oshry started a yeshiva for orphaned refugee children.

Death Oshry died on September 28, 2003, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Nearly 1,000 mourners attended his funeral. He is buried in Jerusalem.

Legacy Yeshiva Shaar Ephraim in Monsey, New York is named after him. It is headed by his son-in-law.

Works Oshry, Ephraim. Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, Judaica Press, 1995 Oshry, Ephraim. Responsa from the Holocaust, B. Goldman and Y. Leiman Eds., Judaica Press, 2001