Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler

Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler was an Orthodox rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and ethicist of the 20th century. His father was a close student of R' Simcha Zissel Ziv, known as the "Alter of Kelm", and his mother was a granddaughter of the founder of the Mussar movement, R' Yisroel Salanter. He was taught by private tutors and at the age of 14 became one of the youngest students in the yeshiva of Kelm, which was then led by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Braude, the Alter's son-in-law. He received Semikha from his uncle Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Eventually he served as a rabbi in London’s East End and later in Dalston, Northeast London. In the early 1940s, Rabbi Dessler assumed leadership of the newly formed Gateshead Kollel. In the late 1940s, the leadership of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Berak convinced Rabbi Dessler to assume the role of Mashgiah Ruchani (spiritual counsellor and lecturer on ethical issues). He relocated to Israel and again gathered a small circle of students around him. Upon his death his students published six-volumes containing his lectures and writings, called Mikhtav me-Eliyahu ("Letter from Elijah"), later translated into English and published as "Strive for Truth".