Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement
The Mussar movement, the formal study and program of ethical improvement, was developed in the mid-nineteenth century by Rabbi Israel Salanter (1810-1883, his family name was Lipkin but…
The Holy Ari: Rabbi Isaac ben Solomon Luria
When Rabbi Isaac ben Solomon Luria arrived in Safed, in 1569, the town had already become a center of Jewish learning, with a particular emphasis on the kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). By…
Rabbi Dr. Joachim Prinz
Can you name the speaker who preceded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington? It was Rabbi (Dr.) Joachim Prinz,…
Rabbi Dr. Joachim Prinz
Can you name the speaker who preceded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington? It was Rabbi (Dr.) Joachim Prinz, a German Jew who had been…
Chief Rabbi of New York
The position of Chief Rabbi is to be found in almost every major Jewish community except in the United States. Perhaps this is due to America’s separation of church and state, as the…
The Rabbi of Pressburg
Rabbi Moses Sofer (1762-1839) received his honorific title, Chatam Sofer (Seal of the Scribe), posthumously, after the publication of his acclaimed halachic (Jewish legal) rulings in a…
Top of the Class
Among the scholars quoted in Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Fathers, are clusters of sages who are interconnected whether due to being from the same city, are part of the same generation or…
A Rabbi in Mexico
Mexico does not have a particularly long Jewish history due to the presence of the Inquisition, and its lingering influence. Today’s Mexican Jews are, in great part, the families of…
Rabbi Aharon Kotler
Rabbi Aharon Kotler, whose 50th yahrtzeit is today, arrived in the United States in 1941. The Va'ad Hatzalah brought Rabbi Kotler out of Nazi controlled Europe, where he had been a highly…