Chief Rabbi

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Chief rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognised religious leader of that country's Jewish community. Since 1911, through a capitulation by R' 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.

[edit] Chief Rabbis by land/region

[edit] Mandate of Palestine

[edit] Ashkenazi

[edit] Sephardi

[edit] Israel

[edit] Ashkenazi

Chief Rabbis of the State of Israel

[edit] Sephardi

Chief Rabbis of the State of Israel

[edit] Argentina

  • Shlomo Ben Hamo

[edit] Austria

  • Akiva Eisenberg
  • Paul Chaim Eisenberg

[edit] Belgium

[edit] British Empire and Commonwealth

See List of chief rabbis of the United Kingdom

External link: Website of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

[edit] Cuba

  • Meir Rosenbaum (1910-2003) (Son of Rabbi Issamar of Nadvorna, Elected 1948: left Cuba in 1956, a little more than two years before Fidel Castro came to power in the Revolution)

[edit] Estonia and Finland

  • Michael Alony, Ph.D. (1995-1996)

[edit] France

...

  • Jacob Kaplan (1955-1981)
  • René Samuel Sirat (1981-1987)
  • Joseph Sitruk (since 1987)

[edit] Guatemala

  • Meir Rosenbaum (Son of Rabbi Issamar of Nadvorna, Later Chief Rabbi of Cuba)

[edit] Hungary

Note that this list is out of order.

[edit] Ireland

[edit] Mexico

[edit] Poland

See also List of Polish Rabbis

[edit] Russia

  • Adolf Shayevitch (since 1983, formally since 1993)Chief rabbi of Ortodox Ritual
  • Berel Lazar (since 2000)Chief rabbi according HABAD Lubavitch Tradition

Moscow

  • Yakov Maze (prior to 1924)
  • Shmarya Yehuda Leib Medalia (1933-1938)
  • Shmuel Leib Levin (1943-1944)
  • Shlomo Shleifer (1944-1957)
  • Yehuda Leib Levin (1957-1972)
  • Adolf (Abraham) Shayevitch (since 1983, formally since 1993)

note: this list is incomplete

[edit] South Africa

[edit] Thailand

  • Yosef Kantor

[edit] Transylvania

Note: The chief rabbi of Transylvania was generally the rabbi of the city of Gyulafehérvár (also known as Alba Iulia and Karlsburg).

  • Joseph Reis Auerbach (d. 1750)
  • Shalom Selig ben Saul Cohen (1754-57)
  • Johanan ben Isaac (1758-60)
  • Benjamin Ze'eb Wolf of Cracow (1764-77)
  • 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

[edit] Turkey

See: List of individuals holding the title Hakham Bashi

[edit] Ukraine

  • Yaakov Dov Bleich - (1992 - present) - original post-communism chief rabbi, still widely recognized Chief Rabbi of Ukraine and Kiev
  • Alex Dukhovny - The Progressive (Liberal/Reform) Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine
  • Azriel Haikin - (2003 - present) - Chabad affiliated - not fully recognized as Ukraine Chief Rabbi, but heads the Ukrainian Chabad [4]
  • Moshe Reuven Azman - (2005 - present) - rabbi from Chabad, though elected mostly by secular Jewish leaders and not by any rabbinical authority [5]

[edit] Venezuela

[edit] Sephardi

[edit] Ashkenazi

[edit] Chief rabbis of cities

[edit] Austria

Vienna

  • Chief rabbi of the orthodox congregation Paul Chaim Eisenberg

[edit] Belgium

Antwerp

[edit] Canada

Montreal

[edit] Czechoslovakia

Nové Zámky, Slovakia

[edit] Hungary

Budapest

[edit] Iran

[edit] 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 HaEdah HaCharedis) 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".

Jerusalem

Ashkenazi, under Ottoman rule:

Chief Rabbis of the Edah Charedis (Unaffiliated with the State of Israel):

Sephardi, under Ottoman and British rule:

  • Jacob Saul Elyashar

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

Tel Aviv-Yaffo

Sephardi

Haifa

Ashkenazi

  • She'ar Yashuv Cohen

Sephardi

Hebron

Sephardi, under Ottoman rule:

[edit] Italy

Rome

  • Elio Toaff (1951-2002)
  • Riccardo Di Segni (2002-)

[edit] Netherlands

Amsterdam

Leiden

  • Simon de Vries

Rotterdam

  • Josiyahu Pardo
  • Arye Leib Breslau
  • Dr. Joseph Isaacsohn
  • Dr. Bernhard Löbel Ritter
  • A.B.N. Davids
  • Lou Vorst (1945-1971)
  • A. Hutterer
  • Raphael Evers

[edit] United States

Chicago

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

Hoboken

  • Rabbi Hayyim Hirschensohn was Chief Rabbi of Hoboken from 1904 until his death, a post which included "The West, that is Jersey City, Union Hill and the Environs" (from title page of Malki Ba-Kodesh, vol. 2; Hoboken, 1921) in its jurisdiction.

New York

  • Rabbi Jacob Joseph was the only true chief rabbi of New York City. However, others claimed the title also; eventually, the title became worthless through dilution.
  • Rabbi 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.

St. Louis

  • Rabbi Menachem Zvi Eichenstein
  • Rabbi Sholom Rivkin[6] - current

[edit] Venezuela

Caracas

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2000/issue4/jv4n4a3.html
  2. ^ http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=7872
  3. ^ http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=7872
  4. ^ http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/?p=3993#more-3993
  5. ^ http://www.rabbinat.qc.ca/
  6. ^ http://www.congki-annapolis.org/clergy.htm

[edit] See also

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