YOSEPH, YA’AKOV. (Chief Rabbi of New York, 1840-1902). Autograph...

YOSEPH, YA’AKOV. (Chief Rabbi of New York, 1840-1902).

Autograph Manuscript Signed, written in Hebrew and German.

Semicha certificate for Rabbi Yehuda Leib Sternheim of Berlin.

One page.

Berlin (”on the way to New York”), 17th Tammuz, 1888.

Rabbi Jacob Joseph (1848-1902) was known in his native Lithuania as "Reb Yankev Charif" of Zhager. In 1888, he left his position as Maggid of Vilna to assume the prestigious newly formed role, Chief Rabbi of New York.

While on his journey to New York he stopped in Berlin and stayed in the home of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Sternheim of the Israelitischen Synagogen-Gemeinde (Adass Jisroel). After being shown by his host semicha certificates written by other Rabbis, R. Ya’akov Yoseph felt the need to write his own such semichah for R. Sternheim, as a way to add support to the Rabbi, fighting as he was against assimilationist trends in Berlin, the heartland of Reform.

See Yonah Landau, The Rav Hakolel and His Generation: A Biography of Yaakov Yosef Chief Rabbi of New York and His Battles for Yiddishkeit at the Turn of the Century (2011).