Rabbi Avraham Yesha'ayahu Karelitz, the "Hazon Ish" (1878-1953), is recognized as the leader who charted the course of Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Judaism in the critical period following the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. He arrived in Israel at a relatively advanced age in 1933, with no source of income, contacts, or rabbinic reputation, and settled in the small town of Bnei Brak, which was then less than ten years old and housed only one yeshivah. Yet, within a few years, the Hazon Ish became the most prominent spiritual leader of Haredi Judaism, and Bnei Brak rapidly became "the city of the Torah", to a large extent thanks to him. In those years, he developed his pragmatic ideological line that he believed should be adopted by Haredi Judaism – not an approach of political isolationism, but rather one of cultural fortification, focusing on the support of religious and educational institutions.
"Professor Benjamin Braun’s monumental study of the great 19th-century rabbi and scholar Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz known as the Chazon Ish is an exhaustive scholarly work treasured by people from very diverse circles (for instance, have seen this book in a chassidic shtiebel in Lakewood, although it is not common to see works by Magnes Press [in conjunction with YU Press] in such places)." - Jewishlink, By Joel Weisberger, January 13, 2022
"This book presents a very extensive research and examination of many sources and disciplines, ideas, opinions, and thoughts of the HI. It seems that such an extensive research has hardly been written in this field in recent years." - Katharsis vol. 18, by Shlomo Z. Havlin, 2013
Authors words about the Hazon Ish
For the Sake of Heaven, by Immanuel Etkes, September 2016
Zion 68-1, by Kimmy Kaplan, 2013
Haaretz, turned into saints, Immanuel Etkes. june2012
Rabbi Shael Speaks...Tachles, a blog by Rabbi Shael Siegel, November 2011
"...a volume that offers the first-ever book-length academic look at Rabbi Abraham Isaiah Karelitz zt"l, widely known as The Hazon Ish, at the founding of a modern Haredi community in the State of Israel, and is a significant contribution towards the study of Orthodox Judaism and religious life in the Land of Israel during the twentieth-century." - The Seforim blog, by Menachem Butler, June 2011
Hirhurim - Musings, November 2011
Jewish Ideas Daily, Lawrence Grossman, November 2011