Jacob Joseph
Encyclopedia
Jacob Joseph served as chief rabbi
of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, a federation of Eastern European Jewish synagogues. Born in Krozhe, a province of Kovno, he studied in the Nevyozer Kloiz under Rabbi Yisrael Salanter
and in the Volozhin yeshiva
under the Netziv. In Volozhin, he was known as "Rav Yaakov Charif" (Rabbi Jacob Sharp) because of his sharp mind.
He became successively rabbi of Vilon in 1868, Yurburg in 1870, Zhagory and then Kovno. His fame as a preacher spread, so that in 1883 the community of Vilna
selected him as its maggid
.
The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School
is named after him, and a playground is named after and honors the memory of a great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Joseph who carried his name.
and Liberal
factions ridiculed the idea, the mainly Russian Orthodox
Ashkenazi community sent a circular offering the post throughout Eastern Europe
.
Rabbi Jacob Joseph was among those offered the prestigious position. He hesitated in coming to America, aware that there were fewer religious Jews. Nevertheless, in 1888 he accepted the challenge in order to support his family, and also because he faced severe debt in Russia. The Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations—comprising 18 congregations and headed by Beth Hamedrash Hagadol—was thrilled when he accepted the position.
They attempted to create one central rabbinic authority in America to maintain order in the field of Kashrus and expand Jewish education programs. Their idea ultimately failed. Although Joseph certainly possessed the credentials needed, he was confronted with many problems, primarily diverse groups of Jews, which also included anti-religious factions and Communists.
His tenure was marked by the divisiveness of New York Jewry, and the polemic of the kosher slaughterhouses of the city. Vehemently anti-religious Yiddish newspapers such as Die Wahrheit (English: "The Truth") unleashed their wrath, spreading false and malicious rumours about the chief rabbi's personal life.
Eventually, after six years, the Association stopped paying his salary. The butchers then paid him until 1895.
to oversee slaughter houses. He also took an active role in establishing the Etz Chaim Yeshiva
—the first yeshiva
on the Lower East Side
, which was founded in 1886. (It was the forerunner of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
).
, which incapacitated him for the rest of his life. He died at age 59 and his funeral was one of the largest in New York, attended by more than 50,000 Jews. Unfortunately, it was partly marred by a public disturbance in which a number of people were injured. Employees of R. Hoe & Company
, manufacturer of printing presses, threw water, paper, wood, and iron from the upper floors of the factory at 504 Grand Street. 200 policemen responded to the call, hitting and pushing the mourners. Some of Hoe’s employees, who had been harassing local Jews for some time, joined the police in the riot and beat mourners.
After Joseph's death, a succession dispute diluted the office of Chief Rabbi and the title was effectively worthless.
Ironically, after Joseph's death many congregations began to give him the honor which they had withheld during his life. Aside from the tens of thousands that came to see him lying on his death bed, forty rabbis gathered in the cemetery for the funeral. Each one vied with his colleague to give him a better eulogy.
The congregations also competed with each other, each one desiring to bury him in its own cemetery. Congregation Adath Israel on Elridge Street promised to give his widow $1,000 on the spot and $10 a week all the rest of her life. Congregation Beis HaMidrash HaGadol was permitted to bury him in their plot at the Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens. This became a good business venture, for the plots near the grave of the chief rabbi became extremely valuable. The widow received the amount promised for several years, and then they stopped sending her the money.
, bounded by Henry and Rutgers Streets, is named in memory of Captain Jacob Joseph (1920–1942), great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Joseph. Captain Joseph was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II
, and scion of a family devoted to religious education and civic affairs.
Born and raised in New York, Joseph left Columbia University
as a junior in 1938 to enlist in the Marines. Joseph died in action at Guadalcanal
on October 22, 1942. Five years later, a local law named this playground in his honor. The dedication ceremony was attended by Mayor William O’Dwyer, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses
, Councilman Stanley Isaacs, and Captain Joseph’s father Lazarus Joseph
– a Democratic Party
leader who was a six time State Senator and New York City's Comptroller at the time.
NYC Department of Parks and Recreation also unveiled a bronze commemorative plaque on the flagstaff, which celebrates the life and bravery of Captain Joseph. This playground was built in part to meet the needs of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, located at the time on Henry St. The playground serves as a lasting memorial to a World War II hero, as well as to notable members of the Joseph family who have contributed to the surrounding neighborhood and to the larger New York City community.
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, a federation of Eastern European Jewish synagogues. Born in Krozhe, a province of Kovno, he studied in the Nevyozer Kloiz under Rabbi Yisrael Salanter
Yisrael Salanter
Rabbi Yisroel Lipkin, better known as "Yisroel Salanter" or "Israel Salanter" , was the father of the Musar movement in Orthodox Judaism and a famed Rosh yeshiva and Talmudist...
and in the Volozhin yeshiva
Volozhin yeshiva
The Volozhin Yeshiva, also known as Etz Chaim Yeshiva, was a prestigious Lithuanian yeshiva located in the town of Volozhin, Russia, . It was founded by Rabbi Chaim Itzkovitz, a student of the famed Vilna Gaon, and trained several generations of scholars, rabbis, and leaders...
under the Netziv. In Volozhin, he was known as "Rav Yaakov Charif" (Rabbi Jacob Sharp) because of his sharp mind.
He became successively rabbi of Vilon in 1868, Yurburg in 1870, Zhagory and then Kovno. His fame as a preacher spread, so that in 1883 the community of Vilna
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
selected him as its maggid
Maggid
Maggid , sometimes spelled as magid, is a traditional Eastern European Jewish religious itinerant preacher, skilled as a narrator of Torah and religious stories. A preacher of the more scholarly sort was called a "darshan", and usually occupied the official position of rabbi...
.
The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School
Rabbi Jacob Joseph School
The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is an Orthodox Jewish day school located in Staten Island, New York that serves students from nursery through twelfth grade. The school was founded in 1903 and named in honor of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew...
is named after him, and a playground is named after and honors the memory of a great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Joseph who carried his name.
Chief rabbi
The Jewish community of New York wanted to be united under a common religious authority, and although the ReformReform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
and Liberal
Liberal Judaism
Liberal Judaism , is one of the two forms of Progressive Judaism found in the United Kingdom, the other being Reform Judaism. Liberal Judaism, which developed at the beginning of the twentieth century is less conservative than UK Reform Judaism...
factions ridiculed the idea, the mainly Russian Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
Ashkenazi community sent a circular offering the post throughout Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
.
Rabbi Jacob Joseph was among those offered the prestigious position. He hesitated in coming to America, aware that there were fewer religious Jews. Nevertheless, in 1888 he accepted the challenge in order to support his family, and also because he faced severe debt in Russia. The Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations—comprising 18 congregations and headed by Beth Hamedrash Hagadol—was thrilled when he accepted the position.
They attempted to create one central rabbinic authority in America to maintain order in the field of Kashrus and expand Jewish education programs. Their idea ultimately failed. Although Joseph certainly possessed the credentials needed, he was confronted with many problems, primarily diverse groups of Jews, which also included anti-religious factions and Communists.
His tenure was marked by the divisiveness of New York Jewry, and the polemic of the kosher slaughterhouses of the city. Vehemently anti-religious Yiddish newspapers such as Die Wahrheit (English: "The Truth") unleashed their wrath, spreading false and malicious rumours about the chief rabbi's personal life.
Eventually, after six years, the Association stopped paying his salary. The butchers then paid him until 1895.
Successes
Although Joseph fought a losing battle in the kosher meat and poultry industry, he managed to achieve some notable accomplishments, including the hiring of qualified shochtim, introducing irremovable seals ("plumba") to identify kosher birds, and setting up MashgichimMashgiach
In Judaism, a Mashgiach is a person who supervises the kashrut status of a kosher establishment.A mashgiah may supervise any type of food service establishment, including slaughterhouses, food manufacturers, hotels, caterers, nursing homes, restaurants, butchers, groceries, or cooperatives...
to oversee slaughter houses. He also took an active role in establishing the Etz Chaim Yeshiva
Etz Chaim Yeshiva (Manhattan)
Etz Chaim Yeshiva was founded in 1886 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. It was founded as a cheder-style elementary school and, over time, became the basis of Yeshiva College and Yeshiva University....
—the first yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
on the Lower East Side
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, which was founded in 1886. (It was the forerunner of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary , or Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University, located in Washington Heights, New York. It is named after Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, who died the year it was founded, 1896...
).
Works
Joseph published:- Le'Beis Yaakov (Vilna, 1888), a collection of homilies and novellæ.
Death
In 1897, Joseph suffered a strokeStroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, which incapacitated him for the rest of his life. He died at age 59 and his funeral was one of the largest in New York, attended by more than 50,000 Jews. Unfortunately, it was partly marred by a public disturbance in which a number of people were injured. Employees of R. Hoe & Company
R. Hoe & Company
R. Hoe & Company was a New York City based printing press manufacturer established by Peter Smith, Matthew Smith , and their brother-in-law, English emigrant Robert Hoe , in 1805 as Smith, Hoe & Company.-Early Years:...
, manufacturer of printing presses, threw water, paper, wood, and iron from the upper floors of the factory at 504 Grand Street. 200 policemen responded to the call, hitting and pushing the mourners. Some of Hoe’s employees, who had been harassing local Jews for some time, joined the police in the riot and beat mourners.
After Joseph's death, a succession dispute diluted the office of Chief Rabbi and the title was effectively worthless.
Ironically, after Joseph's death many congregations began to give him the honor which they had withheld during his life. Aside from the tens of thousands that came to see him lying on his death bed, forty rabbis gathered in the cemetery for the funeral. Each one vied with his colleague to give him a better eulogy.
The congregations also competed with each other, each one desiring to bury him in its own cemetery. Congregation Adath Israel on Elridge Street promised to give his widow $1,000 on the spot and $10 a week all the rest of her life. Congregation Beis HaMidrash HaGadol was permitted to bury him in their plot at the Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens. This became a good business venture, for the plots near the grave of the chief rabbi became extremely valuable. The widow received the amount promised for several years, and then they stopped sending her the money.
Jacob Joseph Playground
A playground on Manhattan's Lower East SideLower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, bounded by Henry and Rutgers Streets, is named in memory of Captain Jacob Joseph (1920–1942), great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Joseph. Captain Joseph was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and scion of a family devoted to religious education and civic affairs.
Born and raised in New York, Joseph left Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
as a junior in 1938 to enlist in the Marines. Joseph died in action at Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña in 1568...
on October 22, 1942. Five years later, a local law named this playground in his honor. The dedication ceremony was attended by Mayor William O’Dwyer, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
, Councilman Stanley Isaacs, and Captain Joseph’s father Lazarus Joseph
Lazarus Joseph
Lazarus Joseph was an attorney, six-time New York State Senator from 1934 to 1945 , and New York City Comptroller .- Career :...
– a Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
leader who was a six time State Senator and New York City's Comptroller at the time.
NYC Department of Parks and Recreation also unveiled a bronze commemorative plaque on the flagstaff, which celebrates the life and bravery of Captain Joseph. This playground was built in part to meet the needs of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, located at the time on Henry St. The playground serves as a lasting memorial to a World War II hero, as well as to notable members of the Joseph family who have contributed to the surrounding neighborhood and to the larger New York City community.
External links
- Otzar Zikhronotai blog
- Jewish Observer article discussing Rabbi Jacob Joseph
- Rabbi Jacob Joseph School (Yeshiva Merkaz Hatorah) website
- Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society
- NYC Department of Parks & Recreation data on Jacob Joseph playground
- "The Yeshiva on Henry Street" by Dr. Marvin Schick, President of RJJ School