Mattityahu Strashun (Hebrew: מתתיהו שטראשון, also spelled Strassen; October 1, 1817 – December 13, 1885)[1] was a Lithuanian Talmudist, Midrashic scholar, book collector, communal leader, and philanthropist.

He amassed a significant private collection of books and rare manuscripts which formed the basis for the Strashun Library of Vilnius, which operated from 1892 to 1941.

[1] In addition to mastering Talmud, Strashun acquired fluency in Hebrew and had a working knowledge of Russian, Polish, German, French, and Latin.

[6] During his 1857 trip around Europe to collect rare manuscripts, the Berlin Jewish community asked him to serve as their Rav, but he declined.

[8] During World War II, the Strashun Library was looted and partially destroyed by the Nazis; in 1945 about 40,000 volumes were retrieved by the U.S. Army in Germany.

[7] In June 2017 the Strashun Library was entered into the UNESCO Memory of the World Registry in a ceremony held by the Directorate of the State Cultural Reserve of Kernavė, which retains 1,300 prints.