Avraham Dov Ber Kahana Shapiro

Avraham Dov Ber Kahana Shapiro was born in 1870 in Kobryn and descended from the family of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. He studied at the Volozhin yeshiva, and after being conscripted into the Russian army in his late teens he continued learning in Minsk, where he grew close to Rabbi Yerucham Yehudah Leib Perlman, the "Minsker Gadol," whose daughter he married. He settled in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, in time becoming its chief rabbi and a founder of the country's rabbinical association. His standing rested largely on Devar Avraham (also spelled Dvar Avraham), a responsa work in several parts whose first volume appeared in 1906, setting out his rulings on matters of Jewish law and practice. Abroad in Switzerland for his health as war neared, he chose to return to his community rather than emigrate, and he died in the Kovno ghetto in 1943.