Shmarya Yehuda Leib Medalia

Shmarya Yehuda-Leib Medalia (1872, Vegery, Lithuania- April 19 1938, Moscow) -was the chief rabbi of Moscow between 1933 and 1938.

Shmarya Yehuda-Leib Yankelevich Medalia was born to a family of Lubavicher hasidim. He is an alumnus of the original Slabodka yeshiva.Between 1899-1903, he served as the rabbi of Tula, Russia; and between 1905-1917, in Vitebsk. In 1910 participated in the All-Russian Rabbinic Congress. In 1912, took part in the Agudat Israel congress in Katowice, Poland. Between 1927-1931, again served in Tula. In 1933, received the appointment ot serve as the rabbi of the Choral Synagogue in Moscow. In 1938, he was accused in court of communicating with Lubavitcher rebbe Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, and with German agents, also with corrupting the youth. Upon conviction, he was shot and buried in the common tomb in the Kommunarka proving ground.

He was posthumously exonerated in 20 years. In 1991, rabbi Pinkhas Goldshmidt, who held a post of the rabbi of Moscow in 1991, presented the Choral Synagogue with a parokhet or ark curtain, in memory of Rabbi Medalia.