Began 1900 Nationality Canadian Ended 1943 Name Joseph Weinreb | Successor Gedalia Felder Died 1943 Birth name Yosef Weinreb Positions Chief Rabbi | |
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Organisation Shomrai Shabbos congregation | ||
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.
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.The congregation had just purchased a building on Chestnut Street. 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.After an ideological split in the congregation, a new synagogue was built on Terauley Street, on land donated by Zelig Shapira.
Weinreb died on October 15, 1943 in Toronto. His successor was Rabbi Gedalia Felder.