Rabbi Eliezer Poupko (1886–1961) was born in Radin, Lithuania, on March 18, 1886. He attended the Telz yeshiva. Receiving Semicha in 1908, he served for twenty four years as chief rabbi of the Jewish community in Velizh, Russia. Rabbi Poupko was twice tried in 1930s for defying the religious policies of the Soviet Union and was sentenced to two years in a Siberian prison. He served only part of that sentence as the United States rabbinate was able to win a commutation.