Moses Josef Rubin

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Rabbi Moses Josef Rubin (1892 - 1980) was a Hasidic Jewish cleric in Romania and later in the United States (New York City), a member of the Seret dynasty.

[edit] Biography

During the years 1922-1940, he served as Chief Rabbi of the Jewish-Romanian community in Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Bukovina. In 1941-1946, he was President of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of Romania and Chairman of Agudath Israel in Romania.

In 1940, on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, October 12), all Jewish homes in Câmpulung were plundered, and the Jews were assaulted by the pro-Nazi Iron Guard (see Romania during World War II). The valuable library of Rabbi Rubin was destroyed; he was mistreated and was given a document to sign which stated that he had hidden dynamite in the synagogue to be used in acts of sabotage. Because he refused to sign this document, he and his son were harnessed to a cart loaded with stolen goods, and driven at revolver point while being beaten and humiliated. After the incident, the Rabbi and his family escaped to Bucharest.

During World War II, Rubin founded the first Vaad Hatzalah (emergency committee) in Bucharest, in order to aid Jewish people deported to the Transnistria concentration camps.

After the war, Rabbi Rubin emigrated to the United States where he founded the Center for European Rabbis, whose aims included distributing post-war reparations for European Rabbis who had lost their communities and source for income, as well as preventing the destruction of Jewish cemeteries in Europe.