Yoseif Yaron

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Yoseif Yaron (aka Joseph Crick) is the founder, along with Dr Phillip Miller (Hebrew Union College), of the al-Qirqisani Center for the Promotion of Karaite Studies. The al-Qirqisani Center is the first Karaite publishing house in the United States, and one of the most productive Karaite publishing interests in the last 200 years. Yaron was born Joseph Aaron Crick in Spokane, WA in 1972. His father was a Charismatic Christian minister. His mother was a Montessori teacher, and child developmental specialist.

Yaron experimented with several religions before converting to Orthodox Judaism shortly after he graduated from college in 1996. Yaron was not satisfied with Orthodox Judaism. He believed that there were logical inconsistencies in the Talmud which troubled him. One day, he encountered a book in the library of his synagogue, Congregation Ezra Bessaroth in Seattle, WA, which he said changed his life. This book was Leon Nemoy's Karaite Anthology. In reading the anthology, Yaron was impressed with the Karaite's adherence to the "written" Torah, and their opposition to the "Oral" Torah, which Yaron believed was a fanciful invention. Shortly after reading the anthology, Yaron left Orthodox Judaism, and made contact with the Karaite community in Daly City, CA (San Francisco). He joined the Karaites in 1998, began a website dedicated to Karaism, and became involved with the community as an educator.

During his tenure as an educator in the community, Yaron was made aware of the dearth of books on Karaism in English, and, after reading Dr Phillip Miller's Karaite Separatism in 19th Century Russia, contacted him to ask him about starting a publishing venture. The first volume Yaron published was a Karaite Haggadah, followed by reprints of several scholarly works on Karaism in English that had not been available for several years. Yaron edited the Introduction to Karaite Judaism, which was first published in 2001. The "Introduction" was, according to the backflap "the first book on Karaite belief and practice ever published in English". Shortly after the book was published, Yaron was asked to leave the Karaite community for reasons unknown.

After leaving the Karaite community, Yaron returned to his birth name---Joseph Crick---and ceased to practice any religion. Shortly after that, he and his wife of seven years divorced.

He lives today in Seattle, WA, and continues to work in publishing---occasionally producing publications with the al-Qirqisani Center.