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R. Eliezer son of R. Shraga Yitzchak HaKohen Pinkowitz

Smiltene

Born in 5617 in Bauska.1)

He served in the rabbinate in Valka and in Priekule (Frauenburg), and from 5668 (1908) served as rabbi here for more than 20 years.

He passed away on 23 Marcheshvan 5689 (6 November 1928).

He is the one mentioned in the responsa Ateret Mordechai (Riga 5698) of R. Mordechai Zelbovitch (p. 170): “a question from my brother-in-law, the rabbi, the great luminary etc., R. Eliezer Pinkovitch HaKohen, of blessed memory.”

Di Geshikhte, in the addenda at the end of the book. Yahadut Latviya, p. 266. Latvia: Batei Knesset VeRabbanim, p. 237.

Latvia and Rabbis

1)
According to Latvia: Batei Knesset VeRabbanim he was born here in Smiltene. In Yahadut Latviya, p. 266, it is written that he was the son-in-law of R. Yaakov David Wilovsky, rabbi of Slutsk (the Ridvaz). But according to what is brought below, he was the son-in-law of R. Abba Leib Zelbovitch of Ponedel in Lithuania, and the brother-in-law of R. Mordechai, among the rabbis of Riga and author of the responsa Ateret Mordechai, and his brother R. Chaim Yosef, ritual slaughterer in Chelsi, Massachusetts. His son R. Shraga Yitzchak and his brothers-in-law of the Zelbovitch family were Chabad Hasidim. See Igrot Kodesh of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Mohariatz), vol. 14, p. 358: “To my dear and distinguished student, our teacher R. Shraga Yitzchak” — the son of the rabbi mentioned above. And in Toldot Chabad BePolin, Lita veLatviya, chapter 13, pp. 67–68, it is described at length how he and his wife founded a branch of the organization “Achos HaTmimim” in Dvinsk, and their correspondence on this matter with the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Mohariatz) is brought.