Maharam Shik

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Rabbi Moshe Shik (1807–1879) was one of the most well-known rabbis in Hungary. He was more commonly known as the Maharam Shik, Maharam being the phonetic pronunciation of the acronym for Moreinu Harav Rabbi Moishe, which means "Our Teacher the Rabbi Moshe" in Hebrew. The spelling of his surname varies, including Shick, Schick, and Shieck.

Maharam Shik was born in Slovakia, the son of Rabbi Joseph Schick. The Schicks were descended from Rabbi Hanoch Heinich Schick of Shklov who is said to have married a daughter of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Rivlin. This Shlomo Zalman had a first cousin of the same name, who was the father of the Gaon of Vilna. Although various sources give differing genealogies of Rabbi Hanochs' ancestry, there is no doubt that he was descended from two famous scholars, Rabbi Yomtov Lipman Heller, and Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen of Padua, the "Maharam Padua".

At the age of 11, the Maharam Shik was sent to study with his uncle, Rabbi Yitzchak Frankel, Av Beth Din in Regensdorf. When he was 14, he was sent to learn under the Chasam Sofer in Pressburg, where he stayed for six years. The Chasam Sofer called his prodigious student "a treasure chest full of holy books".

When he was 20, he married his cousin, Gittel Frankel. He was appointed Rabbi of Yeregin in 1838, where he opened a yeshiva. In 1868 he became Rabbi of Chust, Ukraine, and moved his 800-student yeshiva there.

He argued against the Haskalah movement and called for the establishment of a counter Orthodox movement. In 1868 his wish was granted, with the establishment of the Agudath Yisroel movement. Maharam Shik authored responsa containing over 1000 discussions with Jews of his time, on all issues of life. He died in Chust in 1879.