Blaustein, David (05 May 1866–26 August 1912), rabbi, educator, and social worker, was born in Lida, Russian Poland, the son of Isaiah Blaustein and Sarah Natzkovsky. The family was of humble means, and David was eight years old when his father died. Nine years later he ran away from home to the Prussian town of Memel in order to obtain an education. He then journeyed to Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, where he enrolled in a Jewish teacher’s preparatory school under the leadership of Dr. Fabian Feilchenfeld. His intention was to be a cantor-shochet-teacher to the German Jews, but Bismarck’s ban on Russian Jews in Germany forced him to emigrate to America....
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Blaustein, David (1866-1912), rabbi, educator, and social worker
Claire Strom
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Hutner, Isaac (1906-1980), rabbi, philosopher, and leader of Orthodox Judaism in the United States and Israel
Ira Robinson
Hutner, Isaac (1906–27 November 1980), rabbi, philosopher, and leader of Orthodox Judaism in the United States and Israel, was born in Warsaw, Russian Poland, into a family of prominent supporters of the Hasidic school of Kotzk. He received a traditional Jewish education. Having gained a reputation as a prodigy ( ...
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Lilienthal, Max (06 November 1814?–05 April 1882), rabbi and educator
Jonathan D. Sarna
Lilienthal, Max (06 November 1814?–05 April 1882), rabbi and educator, was born in Munich, Germany, the son of Loew Seligmann Lilienthal, a merchant, and Dina Lichtenstein. He achieved a brilliant record at the University of Munich (Ph.D. 1837) and received his rabbinic ordination from Munich’s chief rabbi, Hirsch Aub. In 1839, upon the recommendation of Ludwig Philippson, editor of the ...
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Magnes, Judah Leon (1877-1948), rabbi, communal leader, and first chancellor and first president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Arthur A. Goren
Magnes, Judah Leon (05 July 1877–27 October 1948), rabbi, communal leader, and first chancellor and first president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was born in San Francisco, California, the eldest of five children of David Magnes and Sophie Abrahamson. His father had emigrated from Poland at age fifteen in 1863 and his mother from eastern Prussia in 1872. When Magnes was five, the family moved to nearby Oakland, California, where his father opened a dry-goods store. The Magneses were a close-knit family. English was the language of the home, although Magnes’s mother and maternal grandmother insisted that the children learn German. The family belonged to the local Reformed congregation, where Magnes received his early religious education. From his father he gained an empathy for the Jewish religious traditions and Yiddish culture of Eastern Europe and from his mother a grounding in German culture. In later life his appreciation for both religious-cultural strands in American Jewish life made him an ideal mediator between the two....
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Morais, Sabato (1823-1897), rabbi and founding president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Pamela S. Nadell
Morais, Sabato (13 April 1823–11 November 1897), rabbi and founding president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, was born in Livorno, Italy, the son of Samuel Morais and Buonina Wolf. He studied privately with rabbis and tutors, mastering classical Hebrew studies as well as Italian, French, and Spanish. In 1845 three of his teachers awarded him rabbinic ordination. In 1846 he became the Hebrew master of the orphanage of London’s Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. Five years later he emigrated to Philadelphia to become minister and spiritual leader ( ...
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Neumark, David (1866-1924), rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and Hebraist
Gary P. Zola
Neumark, David (03 August 1866–15 December 1924), rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and Hebraist, was born in Szczerzec, Galicia, the son of Solomon Neumark, a shopkeeper, and Schifrah Scheutz. He received a traditional Jewish education and attended cheder (a communal Jewish elementary school) at a very young age while simultaneously receiving supplemental Hebraic instruction from his father who was himself a learned Jew. When his father died, Neumark’s mother ran the family store on her own so that her seven-year-old son would be able to continue his Jewish education. After finishing ...
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Ruderman, Yaakov Yitzchak (1900-1987), yeshiva dean
Moshe Sherman
Ruderman, Yaakov Yitzchak (14 February 1900–11 July 1987), yeshiva dean, was born in Dolhinov, Russia, the son of Yehuda Leib Ruderman and Shana (maiden name unknown). Ruderman received his initial education from his father, a rabbi and instructor of Bible and Talmud for young men. Enrolling in the famed Knesset Israel yeshiva in Slobodka, Lithuania, Ruderman was greatly influenced by the yeshiva’s legendary spiritual counselor, Rabbi Nathan Zevi Finkel, known as the Alter of Slobodka....
