Sholom Klass

Rabbi Sholom Klass (1916–2000) was the co-founder, publisher and editor of The Jewish Press, a large Jewish circulation newspaper.

He also authored Tales from our Gaonim[1] and the Halachic work Responsa of Modern Judaism (3 volumes).

Rabbi Klass received Smicha (Rabbinical Ordination) from Yeshiva Torah Vodaas.[2]

Prior to starting The Jewish Press, he was a co-publisher of The Brooklyn Daily[3](now defunct).

Causes

He used his newspaper[4] to support both what should seem obvious (Torah, Israel, Jewish Civil Rights) [5] and a range of causes that were not getting much publicity, from the Igud Harabbonim (Rabbinical Alliance of America)[6] to matters dealing with honoring the power of Bais Din.[7]

Legacy

His daughter's "Dear Dad",[8] written for the 9th Yartzeit, contains examples of one of Rabbi Klass' major accomplishments: the popularization of the use of a dash in writing G-d's name, in English, as the normative form by Orthodox Jews.[9]

He and Rabbi Meir Kahane, whom he hired, broke this barrier, the latter also expanding upon this in the books he authored.

Although Rabbi Shalom Klass turned over his (Halachic) Questions & Answers column to his nephew Rabbi Yaakov Klass well before his death, one way in which the column affected worldwide Jewry was as the inspiration of the acronym AYLOR - Ask Your Local Orthodox Rabbi [10] .[11]

Interestingly, some have attempted to even extend AYLOR by having "O" stand for "Ordained.".[12]

The point made by Rabbi Klass is that information in the column is to educate, not to provide an absolute ruling.

References

  1. ↑ http://lccn.loc.gov/67006223, LCCN 67006223, 1967, parts of which were serialized and reprinted in The Jewish Press
  2. ↑ The Jewish Week, Jan 21, 2000
  3. ↑ Jews of Brooklyn, by Ilana Abramovitch, Sean Galvin, ISBN 1-58465-003-6, p. 287
  4. ↑ Before Al Gore invented, yes invented, what was formerly called DARPAnet, as documented by http://www.reason.com/news/show/31005.html and http://www.virtu-software.com/ask-doug/QandA.asp?subject=3&q=26 - yes, he did! -- the Mark Twain quote about never picking a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel had a strong basis. Even in the 21st century and http://www.unsolicitedmarketingadvice.com/2005/09/todays-customers-buy-ink-by-barrel.html, the Power of the Press is still alive and kicking, per http://www.jewishomaha.org/page.aspx?id=198648, by Carol Katzman, Editor of the Jewish Press
  5. ↑ http://www.thejewishpress.com/aboutus.cfm
  6. ↑ http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/37067
  7. ↑ Get (divorce document), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agunah
  8. ↑ http://www.jewishpress.com/content.cfm?contentid=37965&sContentid=1
  9. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?title=Talk:The_Ten_Commandments_(1956_film)#G-d.3F
  10. ↑ http://forums.torah.org/viewtopic.php?t=24853&start=75&sid=5df2fb594c005133119acbdc70fc5bb5
  11. ↑ http://www.ottmall.com/mj_ht_arch/v6/mj_v6i04.html, a British site
  12. ↑ http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/A12.html

External links