Yitzchak Zev (Velvel) Halevi Soloveitchik, also known as the "Brisker Rav" and the acronym "Griz" was the last rabbi of the town of Brisk (Brest, Belarus) before the Holocaust. His father, R. Chaim Soloveitchik, was rosh yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Volozhin, while his maternal grandfather, R. Rafael Shapira was its longtime rosh yeshiva. He was an extraordinary learner and was said to have memorized the entire Babylonian Talmud, along with Rashi's commentary, by age 16. After the closing of the Yeshiva of Volozhin, the family moved to Brisk, where his paternal grandfather, R. Yosef Baer Soloveitchik, was the town rabbi. The position then passed to his father and later to Yitzchak Zev. The Holocaust forced him to flee to Jerusalem, where he maintained a position of non-participation with the Israeli government, including opposition to receiving government funding for yeshivot, after the founding of the state. His children and followers founded several yeshivot in Jerusalem, all known as Brisk.