Judah Middleman

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Rabbi
Judah Middleman
Personal
Born1797 or 1798
Died (aged 66–68)
ReligionJudaism
BuriedMachpelah Cemetery, Queens

Judah Benjamin Middleman (Hebrew: יהודה יודל מידדעלמאן, romanizedYehuda Yudel Middelman; 1797 or 1798 – 1 June 1865)[1] was a Galician-born English and American rabbi and writer.

Biography[edit]

Middleman was a native of Lemberg, later settling in Warsaw and then London.[2] There he wrote Netivot Emet, a work written in defense of the traditions of the Talmud against the attacks, in Old Paths, of Alexander McCaul. Only the first part of the Netivot Emet was published, in 1847, along with an English translation by Hebraist Marcus Heinrich Bresslau under the title Paths of Truth; being a Defence of the Talmudical Traditions against the attacks in the "Old Paths," by the Rev. Dr. McCaul.[3]

From England he immigrated to New York in 1848. He was a founder of the city's Beth Hamedrash in 1852,[4] and supplemented his income before Passover as the congregation's matzah baker.[2] After a disagreement with the synagogue's rabbi over the hiring of a shoḥet, Middleman and his followers split from the Beth Hamedrash to form the Kalvarier Synagogue at 15 Pike Street.[5][6]

Bibliography[edit]

  • ספר נתיבות אמת: העומד למגן בעד חכמי התלמוד, להראות העמים והשרים, כי ישרים דבריהם, ולא עולתה בם, וכל מהרסיהם לא יצלו להפיל מהתלמוד צרור ארצה, והוא נגד החבור נתיבות עולם, אשר חברו הדאקטר מ׳קאָל להרוס יסודי התלמוד אשר בית ישראל נשען עליהם [Paths of Truth; being a Defence of the Talmudical Traditions against the attacks in the "Old Paths," by the Rev. Dr. McCaul] (in Hebrew and English). Vol. 1. Translated by Bresslau, M. H. London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper. 1847. OCLC 234086189.

References[edit]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainJacobs, Joseph; Cohen, Israel (1904). "Middleman, Judah". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 545.

  1. ^ "Obituary". The Occident and American Jewish Advocate. Vol. XXIII, no. 4. July 1865. p. 192.
  2. ^ a b Sharfman, I. Harold (1988). The First Rabbi: Origins of Conflict Between Orthodox & Reform. Pangloss Press. ISBN 978-0-934710-15-2.
  3. ^ Jacobs, Joseph; Wolf, Lucien (1888). Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica: A Bibliographical Guide to Anglo-Jewish History. Publications of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition. Vol. 3. London: The Jewish Chronicle.
  4. ^ Eisenstein, J. D. (1901). "The History of the First Russian-American Jewish Congregation: The Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol". Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. 9 (9): 64–66. JSTOR 43058846.
  5. ^ National Historic Landmark Nomination – Eldridge Street Synagogue (Report). National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. 8 February 2016. pp. 16–17. NPS Form 10-900, OMB no. 1024-0018.
  6. ^ Olitzky, Kerry M. (1996). The American Synagogue: A Historical Dictionary and Sourcebook. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-313-28856-2.