Joseph Weinreb

A march in support of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, in front of the parliament building in Toronto, Canada. The man in the shiny black top hat is Rabbi Joseph Weinreb, the chief rabbi of Toronto at the time.

Joseph (Yosef) Weinreb (1869-1943), also known as the “Galitzianer Rav," was the first chief rabbi of Toronto, Canada. He was born in Busk, Galicia, as the son of Rabbi Baruch-Shlomo Weinreb and his wife Soore Ratze.^[1]

He was working as a rabbi in Iași, Romania after receiving his smicha (rabbinical ordination) from the Brejaner Rebbe. Around the year 1900, he received an invitation at the suggestion of his brother-in-law, Binyamin Kurtz, who was living in Toronto at that time, to serve as the rabbi of Toronto's Shomrai Shabbos congregation.^[2]The congregation had just purchased a building on Chestnut Street.^[3] Weinreb moved to Toronto with his two daughters, Malka and Lil, after his wife, Ethel, died in childbirth. In Toronto, he married his niece, Freyda, with whom he had three more children, Soore Ratze, Sol and Ruth. The rabbi purchased a home on Henry Street across from the Poilishe Shul, and continued to head the congregation for more than 40 years.^[4][1][5]After an ideological split in the congregation, a new synagogue was built on Terauley Street, on land donated by Zelig Shapira.^[6]

Weinreb died on October 15, 1943 in Toronto.^[1] His successor was Rabbi Gedalia Felder.

See also

• History of the Jews in Toronto

References

1. 1 2 3 Yosef Weinreb (1869 - 1943)
2. ↑ Shomrai Shabbos celebrates 120 years
3. ↑ Shul History, A Brief History of Our Shul and Kehilah, Shomrai Shabbos-Chevrah Mishanyos Congregation
4. ↑ Genealogy as a labour of love. Bill Gladstone
5. ↑ Yahrzeit Memoir - 'One Hundred Years'. Shomrei Shabbas Mahzikei Hadas - The Trolley Street Shul. By Sara Edell Schafler Kelman
6. ↑ Shapira family held key to Terauley Street synagogue

External links

• Documents in Ontario Jewish Archives