Sholom Rivkin
Encyclopedia
Rabbi Sholom Rivkin was an Israel
i-born American
rabbi
. He was the last Chief Rabbi
of St. Louis, Missouri
, and the last chief rabbi of one of only a few cities in the United States
that has ever had a chief rabbi. He held the post of Chief Rabbi from 1983 until 2005 and was Chief Rabbi Emeritus until his death in 2011. He was also a chief judge on the Beth Din
of the Rabbinical Council of America
, and head of the Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis, the governing body of the St. Louis Orthodox Jewish
community. He was an expert in Jewish law
, especially family and divorce law, and was consulted by rabbis and rabbinical courts around the world.
in Jerusalem. His father was Rabbi Moshe Ber Rivkin, a protégé of Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn
(also known as “the Rashab”), the fifth Rebbe
(spiritual leader) of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic
movement. His mother was Nacha Rivkin (nee Heber) of Kalisz
, Poland
. Moshe Ber and Nacha married in 1920 and their daughter, Ella, was born in 1921. In 1924, Moshe Ber Rivkin was sent by the Rashab to Palestine to be the dean of a rabbinical school, the Yeshivas Toras Emes in Jerusalem, where Sholom was born.
Following the 1929 Palestine riots
, Rivkin's family emigrated to the United States
and settled in Brownsville, Brooklyn
, where Rivkin’s father become the dean of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
. His mother was one of the founders of the Shulamith School for Girls
in Borough Park, Brooklyn
, the first girls’ yeshiva in the United States. She became a renowned Hebrew textbook author and Jewish educator, championing day school education
for Orthodox Jewish girls.
Rivkin became a rabbinical scholar at the Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and Beth Medrash Elyon
and was an exemplary student of Rabbis Shlomo Heiman
and Reuvain Grozovsky
. He received his rabbinic ordination
at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath. When he was ordained, Rabbi Moshe Binyamin Tomashoff called him "among the most gifted of his generation."
(dean) at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
school in Brooklyn. However, in 1949, at the encouragement of the sixth Lubavitcher
Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, Rivkin moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to become the communal rabbi of the Nusach Ha'Ari congregation. He also became the Jewish chaplain
at the Veterans Administration Hospital
at Jefferson Barracks
and an administrator and counselor at Epstein Hebrew Academy
.
In 1954, on a trip to Buffalo, New York
, he met Paula Zuckerman, the only child of Rabbi Dov Berish Zuckerman and Hinda Zuckerman. Paula’s family had fled Austria after the annexation of Austria
into Nazi Germany
in 1938. They married in 1954, and subsequently had two children, Bentzion and Yocheved.
In 1959, the family moved to Seattle, where Rivkin became the rabbi of the Bikur Cholim Synagogue
. In 1970, they moved to Queens
, N.Y., where Rivkin served as rabbi of Young Israel of Wavecrest and Bayswater.
(Court of Jewish Law) of the Rabbinical Council of America
. He held this post for 15 years.
He was a renowned expert in halakha
(Jewish law), and an international authority on Jewish divorce law
. Other rabbis and rabbinical courts from all over the world consulted him on these matters. He also once traveled to the Soviet Union
to perform Jewish religious divorces because of the lack of qualified rabbis there at that time. Rivkin was often at the forefront of dealing with new issues in the area of Jewish family law. For example, in the 1980s, he decided to allow a Jewish woman to undergo in vitro fertilization and this decision subsequently influenced others in the area of Jewish medical ethics
.
For the next 22 years, Rivkin presided as Chief Rabbi over the St. Louis Rabbinical Court and led the Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis, a council that supervises local kosher practice
and religious divorce. He was the final arbiter
of all cases of Jewish law of the Rabbinical Court, and both his scholarship and care for others were noted as hallmarks of his term of office.
In 2005, Rivkin retired as Chief Rabbi due to ill health and he was named Chief Rabbi Emeritus. No new appointment was made to fill his position and the St. Louis Rabbinical Council collectively assumed his duties.
The institution of Chief Rabbi was rare in the United States and existed only in a few U.S. cities; St. Louis was the last city in which a chief rabbi led the Orthodox Jewish community, and Rivkin was thus the last chief rabbi of a city in the United States.
Their son, Rabbi Benzion Rivkin, is the 41st in a continuous line of rabbis in the Rivkin family, according to the family's count. Their daughter Yocheved (Jacqueline) Rivkin Rubin is a journalist living in New York City. The Rivkins had two grandchildren, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Rivkin (wife, Sarah) and Nacha R. Rubin; and two great grandchildren, Bracha Rivkin and Yakov Moshe Rivkin.
Rivkin died on October 1, 2011, of complications from Parkinson's disease
. He was 85 years old. Three memorial services were held: one at Young Israel in St. Louis, in keeping with the tradition that the funeral of the Gadol Ha’ir (the rabbinic leader of the city) take place inside a synagogue; a second at Yeshivah Torah Vodaath in New York, and the third in Jerusalem. Rivkin was buried next to his wife at the Mount of Olives
Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rabbi
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...
. He was the last Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
of St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, and the last chief rabbi of one of only a few cities in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that has ever had a chief rabbi. He held the post of Chief Rabbi from 1983 until 2005 and was Chief Rabbi Emeritus until his death in 2011. He was also a chief judge on the Beth Din
Beth din
A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...
of the Rabbinical Council of America
Rabbinical Council of America
The Rabbinical Council of America is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union, or OU...
, and head of the Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis, the governing body of the St. Louis Orthodox Jewish
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...
community. He was an expert in Jewish law
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
, especially family and divorce law, and was consulted by rabbis and rabbinical courts around the world.
Early life and education
Sholom Rivkin was born June 6, 1926, at Hadassah HospitalHadassah Medical Center
Hadassah Medical Center is a medical organization that operates two University hospitals at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel, as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.The hospital was founded by Hadassah,...
in Jerusalem. His father was Rabbi Moshe Ber Rivkin, a protégé of Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn
Sholom Dovber Schneersohn
Sholom Dovber Schneersohn was an Orthodox rabbi and the fifth Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch chasidic movement. He is also known as "the Rebbe nishmosei eiden" and as "the Rebbe Rashab" .His teachings represent the emergence of an emphasis on outreach that later Chabad Rebbes would develop...
(also known as “the Rashab”), the fifth Rebbe
Rebbe
Rebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
(spiritual leader) of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
movement. His mother was Nacha Rivkin (nee Heber) of Kalisz
Kalisz
Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 106,857 inhabitants , the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Moshe Ber and Nacha married in 1920 and their daughter, Ella, was born in 1921. In 1924, Moshe Ber Rivkin was sent by the Rashab to Palestine to be the dean of a rabbinical school, the Yeshivas Toras Emes in Jerusalem, where Sholom was born.
Following the 1929 Palestine riots
1929 Palestine riots
The 1929 Palestine riots, also known as the Western Wall Uprising, the 1929 Massacres, , or the Buraq Uprising , refers to a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 when a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence...
, Rivkin's family emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and settled in Brownsville, Brooklyn
Brownsville, Brooklyn
Brownsville is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn, New York City.The total land area is one square mile, and the ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11212....
, where Rivkin’s father become the dean of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas is a yeshiva located in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.- History :...
. His mother was one of the founders of the Shulamith School for Girls
Shulamith School for Girls
Shulamith School for Girls is a centrist Modern Orthodox Jewish, at one time Middle States accredited school currently located in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, New York, in the building that originally housed...
in Borough Park, Brooklyn
Borough Park, Brooklyn
Borough Park , is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City in the United States....
, the first girls’ yeshiva in the United States. She became a renowned Hebrew textbook author and Jewish educator, championing day school education
Jewish day school
A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide Jewish children with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full time basis, hence its name of "day school" meaning a school that the students attend for an entire day and not on a part time...
for Orthodox Jewish girls.
Rivkin became a rabbinical scholar at the Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and Beth Medrash Elyon
Beth Medrash Elyon
Beth Medrash Elyon is a yeshiva in Spring Valley, New York. It was considered one of the elite yeshivas during the 1950s and 1960s. It closed in the 1960s due to disagreements among the leaders of the yeshiva. Its Roshei Yeshiva have included Rabbis Reuven Grozovsky, Gedalia Schorr, and Yaacov...
and was an exemplary student of Rabbis Shlomo Heiman
Shlomo Heiman
Shlomo Heiman was a Rabbi, Talmudist, and Rosh Yeshiva of the most prominent yeshivas in Europe and America.-In Europe:In 1892, Reb Shlomo was born in Paritsh, Minsk in Belarus. His father was Rabbi Michel Heiman. When he was 12 years old, he went to Kaminetz yeshiva to study under R' Baruch Ber...
and Reuvain Grozovsky
Reuvain Grozovsky
Refael Reuvain Grozovsky was a leading Orthodox rabbi, Jewish religious leader and rosh yeshiva known for his Talmudic analytical style.-Early years:...
. He received his rabbinic ordination
Semicha
, also , or is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism. In this sense it is the "transmission" of rabbinic authority to give advice or judgment in Jewish law...
at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath. When he was ordained, Rabbi Moshe Binyamin Tomashoff called him "among the most gifted of his generation."
Early career and marriage
In 1947, at age 21, Rivkin was appointed a rosh yeshivaRosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
(dean) at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin or Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, is a Haredi Lithuanian-type yeshiva located in Brooklyn, New York. Established in 1904 as Yeshiva Tiferes Bachurim, it is the oldest yeshiva in Kings County...
school in Brooklyn. However, in 1949, at the encouragement of the sixth Lubavitcher
Chabad
Chabad or Chabad-Lubavitch is a major branch of Hasidic Judaism.Chabad may also refer to:*Chabad-Strashelye, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism*Chabad-Kapust or Kapust, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism...
Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, Rivkin moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to become the communal rabbi of the Nusach Ha'Ari congregation. He also became the Jewish chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
at the Veterans Administration Hospital
Veterans Administration Hospital
Veterans Administration Hospital or Veterans Administration Medical Center is a term used to refer to one of the medical facilities operated by the Veterans Health Administration, a division of the U.S...
at Jefferson Barracks
Jefferson Barracks Military Post
The Jefferson Barracks Military Post, located on the Mississippi River at Lemay, Missouri, which is just south of St. Louis, Missouri,was, at first owned land by the DeGamache's then borrowed by military leaders, but after war, the land was not returned. It was an important and highly active U.S....
and an administrator and counselor at Epstein Hebrew Academy
Epstein Hebrew Academy
H.F. Epstein Hebrew Academy is a Jewish Day School in Olivette, Missouri. It has been given the nickname EHA, an abrreviation. Its current headmaster is Rabbi Avi Greene. Epstein's assistant headmaster is Rhonda Donaldson. Its administration consists of Gayle Chazen, Barb Kinder, and David Friedman...
.
In 1954, on a trip to Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, he met Paula Zuckerman, the only child of Rabbi Dov Berish Zuckerman and Hinda Zuckerman. Paula’s family had fled Austria after the annexation of Austria
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
into Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in 1938. They married in 1954, and subsequently had two children, Bentzion and Yocheved.
In 1959, the family moved to Seattle, where Rivkin became the rabbi of the Bikur Cholim Synagogue
Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath
Congregation Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath is a synagogue in the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It is the oldest synagogue in Washington state.The rabbi is Moshe Kletenik.-History:...
. In 1970, they moved to Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, N.Y., where Rivkin served as rabbi of Young Israel of Wavecrest and Bayswater.
National Beth Din judge
After moving to Queens, Rivkin was appointed a chief judge (dayan) of the national Beth DinBeth din
A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...
(Court of Jewish Law) of the Rabbinical Council of America
Rabbinical Council of America
The Rabbinical Council of America is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union, or OU...
. He held this post for 15 years.
He was a renowned expert in halakha
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
(Jewish law), and an international authority on Jewish divorce law
Get (divorce document)
A is a divorce document, which according to Jewish Law, must be presented by a husband to his wife to effect their divorce. The essential text of the is quite short: "You are hereby permitted to all men," i.e., the wife is no longer a married woman, and the laws of adultery no longer apply...
. Other rabbis and rabbinical courts from all over the world consulted him on these matters. He also once traveled to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
to perform Jewish religious divorces because of the lack of qualified rabbis there at that time. Rivkin was often at the forefront of dealing with new issues in the area of Jewish family law. For example, in the 1980s, he decided to allow a Jewish woman to undergo in vitro fertilization and this decision subsequently influenced others in the area of Jewish medical ethics
Jewish medical ethics
Jewish medical ethics is a modern scholarly and clinical approach to medical ethics that draws upon Jewish thought and teachings. Pioneered by Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits in the 1950s, Jewish medical ethics centers mainly around an applied ethics drawing upon traditional rabbinic law...
.
Chief Rabbi of St. Louis
The Vaad Hoeir (community council) of the United Orthodox Jewish Community invited Rivkin to return to St. Louis as Chief Rabbi, following the death in 1981 of the previous chief rabbi, Rabbi Menachem Eichenstein, who had served in that position since 1941. In 1983, Rivkin succeeded Eichenstein as Chief Rabbi.For the next 22 years, Rivkin presided as Chief Rabbi over the St. Louis Rabbinical Court and led the Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis, a council that supervises local kosher practice
Kashrut
Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed...
and religious divorce. He was the final arbiter
Posek
Posek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive or in those situations where no halakhic precedent exists....
of all cases of Jewish law of the Rabbinical Court, and both his scholarship and care for others were noted as hallmarks of his term of office.
In 2005, Rivkin retired as Chief Rabbi due to ill health and he was named Chief Rabbi Emeritus. No new appointment was made to fill his position and the St. Louis Rabbinical Council collectively assumed his duties.
The institution of Chief Rabbi was rare in the United States and existed only in a few U.S. cities; St. Louis was the last city in which a chief rabbi led the Orthodox Jewish community, and Rivkin was thus the last chief rabbi of a city in the United States.
Family
After their marriage in 1954, Paula (Pepi) Rivkin became a clinical psychologist. She was an advocate for women and helped establish the Jewish Council Against Family Violence. She was also a community leader, serving as a member of the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, the board and advisory committee of the St. Louis Jewish Light, and as a driving force behind the renovation of the community mikveh. The couple was married for 56 years, until Paula died January 7, 2011, aged 78.Their son, Rabbi Benzion Rivkin, is the 41st in a continuous line of rabbis in the Rivkin family, according to the family's count. Their daughter Yocheved (Jacqueline) Rivkin Rubin is a journalist living in New York City. The Rivkins had two grandchildren, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Rivkin (wife, Sarah) and Nacha R. Rubin; and two great grandchildren, Bracha Rivkin and Yakov Moshe Rivkin.
Rivkin died on October 1, 2011, of complications from Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
. He was 85 years old. Three memorial services were held: one at Young Israel in St. Louis, in keeping with the tradition that the funeral of the Gadol Ha’ir (the rabbinic leader of the city) take place inside a synagogue; a second at Yeshivah Torah Vodaath in New York, and the third in Jerusalem. Rivkin was buried next to his wife at the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
Cemetery in Jerusalem.