Or Zorua
Leaders of Ashkenazic Jewry

The Or Zarua lived in medieval France and Germany in one of the most brutal periods of Jewish history until the Holocaust. A sampling of his rulings in Jewish Law give insight into the harrowing daily challenges the Jewish people faced. His innovative solutions will sometimes surprise the modern listener, but his dedication to the preservation of the Jewish people when their Christian neighbors aimed to destroy them have won him his place as one of the heroes of Jewish history.