Yehuda Leib Tsirelson

Yehuda Leib Tsirelson (1859 in Kozelets, Chernihiv Oblast – 1941 in Kishinev, Soviet Union) was the Chief Rabbi of Bessarabia, a member of the Romanian parliament, and a prominent Jewish leader and posek.

In 1911 he was one of the signatories of a letter by 300 prominent Russian Rabbis against the antisemitic Beilis affair case.

In 1912 he was among a core group of Jewish leaders and Rabbis who laid the foundation for the Agudat Israel movement.

In 1920 having knowledge of the Romanian language he was elected to represent the Jews of Bessarabia in the Parliament of Romania in Bucharest.

He was executed together with forty other Jewish leaders by the order of the Germans after they captured Kishinev in June of 1941.