Wolf Gold
Encyclopedia
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...
, Jewish activist, and one of the signatories of the Israeli declaration of independence
Born in Stettin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(today Szczecin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
in 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...
) he was a descendant on his father's side from at least eight generations of rabbis. Gold's first teacher was his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Yehoshuah Goldwasser. Later he studied at the Mir yeshiva
Mir yeshiva (Poland)
The Mir yeshiva , commonly known as the Mirrer Yeshiva or The Mir, was a Haredi yeshiva located in the town of Mir, Russian Empire...
under Rabbi Eliyahu Baruch Kamei. From there Gold moved on to study in Lida
Lida
Lida is a city in western Belarus in Hrodna Voblast, situated 160 km west of Minsk. It is the fourteenth largest city in Belarus.- Etymology :...
at Yeshiva Torah Vo'Da'as - the 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...
of Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines
Yitzchak Yaacov Reines
Yitzchak Yaacov Reines יצחק יעקב ריינס , was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi and the founder of the Mizrachi Religious Zionist Movement.-Life:...
where Torah was combined with secular studies. Gold was ordained as a 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...
at the age of 17 by Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz of Minsk, and succeeded his father-in-law Rabbi Moshe Reichler, as rabbi in Juteka.
At the age of 18 he moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where he served as rabbi in several communities including South Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
(until 1912), Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom
Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom
Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom is an Orthodox synagogue located at 284 Rodney Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York...
in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
(1912–1919), San Francisco (until 1924) and Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Borough Park, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
(1928-1935).
He was a pioneer in establishing Orthodox Judaism
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...
in the United States. He founded the Williamsburg Talmud Torah and Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas is a yeshiva located in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.- History :...
in 1917. He started the Beth Moshe hospital and an orphanage in Brooklyn and also founded a Hebrew teachers training college in San Francisco.
In 1914, Rabbi Gold invited Rabbi Meir Berlin, secretary of the World Mizrachi
Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)
The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...
, to come to New York to organize a branch of Mizrachi in the United States. For the next 40 years, Rabbi Gold traveled throughout the United States and Canada organizing chapters of the Mizrachi movement and became president of American Mizrachi in 1932.
In 1935 he emigrated
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, where he became the head of the Department of Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora in which capacity he was instrumental in establishing new educational institutions within the Diaspora, devoting himself particularly to the educational needs of North African Jewry.
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...
he was involved in the widespread Zionist opposition to the British White Paper of 1939
White Paper of 1939
The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Mandate for Palestine, as recommended in...
, and worked to rescue European Jewry from the Holocaust. In 1943 he traveled to the United States where he participated as a speaker on behalf of European Jewry at the Rabbis' march
Rabbis' march
The Rabbis' March was a protest for American and allied action to stop the destruction of European Jewry. It took place in Washington, D.C. on October 6, 1943, three days before Yom Kippur...
in Washington.
He was a member of the Jewish Agency Executive, heading the Department for Jerusalem Development.
He served as Vice-President of the Provisional State Council
Provisional State Council
The Provisional State Council was the temporary legislature of Israel from shortly before independence until the election of the first Knesset in January 1949...
and went on to sign the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948. He served on the founding committee of Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
.
On 8 April 1956, Rabbi Gold died in Jerusalem and was buried near his lifelong friend Rabbi Meir Berlin.
Two years after his death in Jerusalem, a Jewish woman’s teacher training seminary was established in the city and named after him; Machon Gold
Machon Gold
Machon Gold was an Orthodox Jewish girl's seminary founded in 1958 by the Torah Education Department of the World Zionist Organization and named after Rabbi Wolf Gold, one of the signatories of the Israeli declaration of independence. The school shutdown in 2008 due to financial considerations...
.