Years: 1928–2022
Primary city: Bnei Brak
Rabbi Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky was a central posek in late 20th- and early 21st-century Israel, based in Bnei Brak. He was widely consulted for guidance on halacha and personal matters. Descended from and married into leading Lithuanian rabbinic families, he devoted his life to intensive learning rather than holding a formal communal rabbinate or Rosh Yeshiva position. His extensive writings on Shas, Rambam, Shulchan Aruch, and practical halacha, together with his role after the passing of Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman as a primary address for the Israeli Haredi public, gave his rulings broad influence across the Torah world.