Rabbi of a number of Lithuanian towns - Veisiejai, Radun, and Rokishok for certain and likely also Wizhany. His sons were also rabbis of Lithuanian towns (see below and profiles of his sons).

Was he named for the Vilna Gaon, who died in 1797?

Translation from The Jewish Communities of Balwierzyszki [Balbieriskis] and Veisiejai [Vsihei] by Berl Kagan. Published in Landsmen Quarterly Publication of the Suwalk-Lomza SIG Vol 7 Numbers 2-3.

On Veisiejai (Vishei) Rabbis - "Eliayahu MARGOLIS, born 1811 in Kalvarija. He was Rabbi in Przerosl, Veisiejai, Radun and Rakishok, where he died in 1867. In Amudei Or by Rabbi Yekhiel HELLER there is a rabbinic responsum to him. His son Mordechai, who was head of the rabbinical cour in Alikst [Alexotten? - Ed] and rabbi of Disne, wrote Sugah be-Shoshanim (Vilna: 1873 - 74). Mordechai's son Asher, author of Shoneh Halakhos (in Halakhos Gedolos: Vilna, 1893 - 94), was rabbi in Rakishok. Many of his Torah discourses were printed in Ha-Magid."

Sources

• The Unbroken Chain by Dr. Neil Rosenstein, Vol 1 2nd edition, page 18. Paragraph G.12.3
• The Margolis Family by Dr. Neil Rosenstein, 1984.
• Translation from The Jewish Communities of Balwierzyszki [Balbieriskis] and Veisiejai [Vsihei] by Berl Kagan. Published in Landsmen Quarterly Publication of the Suwalk-Lomza SIG Vol 7 Numbers 2-3.