Chief Rabbi

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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. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Rabbi Uziel, Israel has had two chief rabbis, one Ashkenazi and one Sephardi.[1]

Cities with large Jewish communities may also have their own chief rabbis; this is especially the case in Israel but has also been past practice in major Jewish centres in Europe prior to the Holocaust. North American cities have rarely had chief rabbis, although some do have them: Montreal, in fact, has two — one for the Ashkenazi community, the other for the Sephardi.

The Chief Rabbi's name is often followed by ABD, which stands for Av Beth Din.[citation needed]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Main article: List of chief rabbis of the United Kingdom

Note that this list is out of order.
  • Meir Eisenstadt known as the Panim Me'iros (1708-), rabbi of Eisenstadt and author of "Panim Me'irot"
  • Alexander ben Menahem
  • Phinehas Auerbach
  • Jacob Eliezer Braunschweig
  • Hirsch Semnitz
  • Simon Jolles — (1717-)
  • Samson Wertheimer — (1693?-1724)(also Eisenstadt and Moravia)
  • Issachar Berush Eskeles — (1725-1753) [2]
  • Joseph Hirsch Weiss, grandfather of Stephen Samuel Wise. [1] [2]
  • Samuel Kohn
  • Ferenc Hevesi
  • Moshe Kunitzer — (1828-1837), a pioneer of the Haskalah movement in Hungary.
  • Alfréd Schöner
  • Koppel Reich
  • Chaim Yehuda Deutsch
  • József Schweitzer

Main article: Chief Rabbinate of Israel

During the pre-state years, the British instituted the Chief Rabbinate which would become the official state rabbinate of the State of Israel upon the founding of that state. Haredi Jewish groups (such as Edah HaChareidis) do not recognize the authority of the Chief Rabbinate. They usually have their own rabbis who do not have any connection to the state rabbinate.

Please note that under current Israeli law, the post of Chief Rabbi exists in only four cities (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beer Sheba). In other cities there may be one main rabbi to whom the other rabbis of that city defer, but that post is not officially the "Chief Rabbi".

Many of Israel's chief rabbis were previously chief rabbis of Israeli cities.

See also: List of Polish Rabbis

A chief Rabbinate never truly developed within the United States for a number of different reasons. While Jews first settled in what is now the US in the 1500's in the desert southwest, and 1654 in New Amsterdam, Rabbis did not appear in the United States until the mid-Ninteenth Century. This lack of Rabbis, coupled with the lack of official colonial or state recognition of a particular sect of Judaism as official (e.g. Ottolengui v. Ancker) effectively led to a form congregationalism amongst American Jews. This did not stop others from trying to create a unified American Judaism. However, Jonathan Sarna argues that those two precedents, as well as the desire of many Jewish immigrants to the US to break from an Orthodox past, effectively prevented any effective Chief Rabbi in America.[4]

Note: The chief rabbi of Transylvania was generally the rabbi of the city of Alba Iulia.

  • Joseph Reis Auerbach — (d. 1750)
  • Shalom Selig ben Saul Cohen — (1754-1757)
  • Johanan ben Isaac — (1758-1760)
  • Benjamin Ze'eb Wolf of Cracow — (1764-1777)
  • Moses ben Samuel Levi Margaliot — (1778-1817)
  • Menahem ben Joshua Mendel — (1818-23)
  • Ezekiel Paneth — (1823-1843)
  • Abraham Friedmann — (d. 1879), the last chief rabbi of Transylvania

See also: Hakham Bashi

  • Abraham N. Schwartz — (d. 1934)
  • Joseph H. Feldman — (retired 1972, d. 1992)

  • Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky known as the Ridbaz, served as chief rabbi of the Russian-American congregations in the city from 1903-1905.

  • She'ar Yashuv Cohen

  • Pinchos Biberfeld, moved back to Germany from where he had emigratd to Israel over 50 years earlier. (1980-1999)
  • Steven Langnas, the first not German born (yet of German descent) Chief Rabbi and Av Beis Din of Munich — (1999-present)

  • Jacob Joseph was the only true Ashkenazi chief rabbi of New York City; there was never a Sephardi chief rabbi, although Dr. David DeSola Pool acted as a leader among the Sepharadim and was also respected as such. Others it has been said claimed the title of Chief Rabbi; eventually, the title became worthless through dilution.
  • Yosef Yitzchok Parnes, the Brooklyner Rebbe, was also considered as such, arriving in Borough Park, Brooklyn in approximately 1913; due to the many non-observant Jews then working for the local utility companies, he did not use any electricity on the Sabbath. Many religious Jews in America in the early 1900s were his adherents.

  1. ^ http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2000/issue4/jv4n4a3.html
  2. ^ Personality of the week: Issachar Berush Eskeles. Beit Hatefutsot.
  3. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B02EFDD173EE733A25753C1A9609C946797D6CF
  4. ^ Jonathan Sarna, 'American Judaism: A History', New Haven: Yale University Pres, 2004.
  5. ^ Title page of Malki Ba-Kodesh, vol. 2; Hoboken, 1921
  6. ^ a b Bnei Brak rabbi named to new beit din post
  7. ^ http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/?p=3993#more-3993
  8. ^ http://www.rabbinat.qc.ca/
  9. ^ http://www.congki-annapolis.org/clergy.htm

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