Yehuda Leib Tsirelson ^People

In 1908 he was appointed religious and crown rabbi of Chisinäu. In 1911 he was one of the signatories of a letter by 300 prominent Russian Rabbis against the an- tisemitic Beilis affair case. That same year he received the title of honorable citizen ofRussian empire. In 1912 he was among a core group of Jewish leaders and Rabbis who laid the foundation for the Agudat Israel movement. In 1918 Bessarabia became part of Romania and Rabbi Tsirelson was nominated Chief Rabbi of the whole Bessarabia.He developed there a Jewish educational system, beginning from kindergar- ten and ending with yeshiva. Many prominent rabbis, including future Rabbis of Ribnita (Chaim Zanvl Abramowitz) and Bohush, studied in his yeshiva. After theSovi- et Union collapsed, thenew Chisināu yeshiva was established in the building of the old one. In 1920 having knowledge of the Romanian language he was elected to represent the Jews of Bessarabia in the Parliament of Romania in Bucuresti. In 1922 he became the only Bessarabian Jewish representative in the parliament. While the antisemitism in Romania was strongly growing. In parliament Tsirelson tried to warn about the growing antisemitism in Romania, but the delegates refused to publish his speeches in the parliament periodical. As a result, Tsirelson resigned from parliament in 1926. In1920 he established the Agudat Israel branch in Chisinäu, which later became autono- mous. He chaired two Agudat Israel councils in 1923 and 1929.