Moses Mescheloff

Biography

Mescheloff’s rabbinical career spanned more than 75 years. He grew up and began his career in a period of crisis in American Orthodox Judaism, and continued to lead it through a second major crisis following World War II and the Holocaust. Ultimately he played a major role in bringing it to the more secure, self-confident, and expanding state it enjoyed by the end of the twentieth century.

Early years

Moshe Mescheloff, the third of four children, was born in New York City in 1909.

His parents were Meier Mischelow (Hebrew: מאיר בן יוסף ישראל‎‎, b. 1879, d. Sunday, 2 Cheshvan 5707 - October 27, 1946) and Bessie (Basse Mirel) Kroll (Hebrew: בתיה מרים בת אליעזר זאב‎‎, b. 1878, d. Thursday, 27 Tishri 5710 - October 20, 1949). They had married in Minsk on Monday night, 2 Kislev 5663 (December 1, 1902). Meier was a descendant of scholarly forebears, and had had a yeshiva education. Meier and Bessie had felt the endemic anti-Semitism in Czarist Russia, and joined the mass migration of Jews from Russia to the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. Some 92,388 Russian Jews immigrated to the US in 1905. In 1906, a year of continued pogroms, Russian Jewish immigration reached 125,234, the highest figure in the entire period of mass immigration. This was out of a total Jewish immigration to the US during that record year of some 153,748, almost all of whom were of East European origin.

Meier and Bessie immigrated to the United States from Minsk, arriving on the SS Smolensk at Ellis Island on Friday, 24 Elul 5666 (September 14, 1906). Meier was then 27, and Bessie was 28. They arrived with two small children, Idel (Yehuda/Irving, then 3; 1903–1969) and Marjase (Mae, an infant; 1906–2005). Meier and Bessie had two more children after their arrival in the United States, Moshe (Moses) and Yitzhak (Al; 1912–1960). Thus their family bridged the Jewish cultures of "the old world" of Europe and of "the new world" of America, setting the background for Moshe's rabbinic career.

Meier had operated some small businesses in Minsk, including a Jewish book shop, with Bessie's help. In New York he first found a job at a grocery store, and then became its hardworking owner. Later he owned a delicatessen store. Meier's yeshiva background and love of books inspired the young Moshe with a lifelong love of books. Moshe's library grew steadily over the years until it numbered several thousand.

Bessie, too, was a lover of writing. A collection of her fifty poetic discourses in Yiddish was distributed among Rabbi Mescheloff's children in December, 1996. She undoubtedly laid a foundation for his extensive writings. In addition to his doctoral dissertation, several scholarly articles and popular booklets and articles (see below), over the many years of his career Rabbi Mescheloff wrote many thousands of divrei Torah (Torah discourses), for synagogue bulletins and for Jewish life cycle events.

Formal Education

When Mescheloff was born, in 1909, his parents lived in Manhattan. Although he was sent to public school through junior high, his parents made sure that he had the finest and most knowledgeable Hebrew teachers they could find, who gave him private "Hebrew lessons" up to the study of the Talmud. When Mescheloff reached the age of 13, his third teacher, a knowledgeable young man, said that Moshe was ready for entrance to a yeshiva.

Orthodox Judaism in America, and in New York in particular, was in a deep crisis in the first decades of the twentieth century. Several causes brought great numbers of adults to compromise their religious traditions, not observing Shabbat or the laws of kashrut and mikvah strictly, if at all: 1 - widespread ignorance of rabbinic literature and of the meaning of Jewish belief and practice in the modern world, 2 - a desire to be free of the heavy burden of Jewishness as it had been felt "in the old world", 3 - economic and social pressures, 4 - a dearth of qualified rabbis and effective community-wide institutions. The young people were set on being absorbed into American society, with its promises of wealth and freedom, and saw the strictures of Orthodox Jewish observance as impediments to their assimilation. The older generation, the great majority having no secular education and little formal Jewish education, was woefully unprepared to teach the young how to maintain their Jewish traditions in the new world.

Most of the rabbis who had studied in the European Jewish tradition were similarly ill-prepared to deal with the challenges presented by America to Jewish life. The Talmudical Academy of Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan (Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS)) was a high school that combined traditional Jewish study with secular studies. It carried the promise of enabling a successful transition of Orthodox Jewish living into America. But it had grown out of a merger of two other institutions only in 1915. From that time it was headed by Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel, who had arrived in the United States in 1906, like Mescheloff's parents.

Mescheloff was much younger than the other boys. They had come from Europe recently, and were all 16 to 20 years old. Yet the 13-year-old passed a rigorous examination by Rabbi Yehuda Weil, one of the roshei yeshiva at RIETS. Moshe was admitted to the Talmudic Academy of RIETS at the age of thirteen, in 1922. He progressed in his studies from teacher to teacher, through his high school years and beyond, until he reached the class of Rabbi Shlomo Polachek, renowned as the Meischeter (or Meitsheter, or Maichater) Illui.

Mescheloff loved his studies. He was also involved in the student government. He innovated a book store, and continued to thrive in his Torah studies. He was an American boy, now receiving a Yeshiva background. He was bi-lingual. Yiddish was his "mama lashon (mother tongue)" and he had no problem learning with his brilliant European teachers. He provided the genuine bridge between the old world and the new world that Rabbi Dr. Revel sought to produce at RIETS.

About this time, Mescheloff took an interest in his ancestral background and the bridge his family was building to America. He wrote an extensive genealogical study, going back several generations - to his great-great-great grandfathers, who had been born in the early 18th century. He included many cousins in various countries, based on interviews with his mother and aunts. Over half a century was to pass before this type of "family roots" study would become popular with junior high and high school students, and adults, in America.

Years later, Mescheloff attested to the major influence Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel had exerted on him. For many of the ten years that Mescheloff spent as a student at RIETS, Dr. Revel was his teacher, friend, and mentor. To Moshe he was a fatherly figure, who took an interest in every phase of the life of each of his students. He met with their parents. He spoke to each in a concerned, friendly fashion, and he was interested in the students' interests. He sought to encourage and to inspire them.

Revel knew of Mescheloff's interest in books and of his project of researching the book stores and building a student library. Rabbi Dr. Revel chose Mescheloff to be the recipient of the golden medal for "Hasmadah (dedication to learning)", rewarded to the most studious student at the Yeshiva high school. The motto attributed to Mescheloff in his year book was "to learn something new every day". This prize and this motto characterized him throughout his life.

When Revel asked for a small class of distinguished students that he would teach himself, Mescheloff was included, even though he continued to be younger than his classmates.

While Mescheloff studied for semikhah (rabbinic ordination) at RIETS, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein was one of his professors of homiletics. The classes were voluntary, and Moshe attended them religiously every Friday morning. His other homiletics professor was Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, one of the great orators of his time. Many years later (see below), Lookstein was the installing officer and guest speaker at Mescheloff's installation in Chicago.

Mescheloff received his semikhah from RIETS in 1932. Among the signatories were Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik and Revel. Soloveichik was Rosh Yeshiva of RIETS during the 1930s, until his death on Friday, 3 Shevat 5701 (January 31, 1941). Mescheloff was one of thirteen students who received semikhah from Soloveichik in America. Indeed, Mescheloff was the first native-born American to receive semikhah from Soloveichik at RIETS.

At the same time, Mescheloff studied at the City College of New York (CCNY) as a night student. The subways were his "Study Hall". Mescheloff received the B.A. degree in 1932, graduating with high honors (Magna Cum Laude, election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Scholarly excellence and knowledge of a wide range of subjects characterized Mescheloff throughout his life.

It was a tremendous challenge to maintain uncompromising loyalty to halakha and to Torah tradition, while injecting them into Jewish life in America. There was a need to translate them into the concepts and the language of contemporary American Jews, and to be open to absorbing the best of American culture into Jewish life. Mescheloff was among the first graduates of RIETS to meet this challenge in the Jewish communities of America, with the appropriate knowledge, commitment, skills and tools .

By this time, Orthodox Jewish life in the United States was undergoing rapid change. The communities were becoming Americanized, as the mass immigration of Orthodox East European Jews had come to an end in 1924. RIETS began to ordain rabbis who were equipped to meet the challenges of life in America. A 1928 request from a congregation asked for "a conservative rabbi, who is well acquainted with the Talmud and Hebraic literature, and also well versed in English, and one who is familiar with all modern topics, who can keep the young people interested." The response from RIETS described its rabbis as "mostly American born, college graduates and fully ordained, ... serving in the capacity of modern Orthodox rabbis. Of course, they deliver lectures in English and take part in all the activities at the synagogue, but they do not deviate from the traditional way of service. If you wish to have a man who was born in America, holding several degrees from colleges, an ordained rabbi who is, or course, well-versed in Hebrew, Talmud, codes and rabbinical literature, and is also an excellent speaker in both English and Yiddish, we shall be glad to recommend you one of our graduates. We wish, however, to emphasize that he is an orthodox rabbi.".

Scranton

Mescheloff's first rabbinical position was at Congregation Machzike Hadas, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, from 1932 to 1936.

During that period, in 1935, Mescheloff married Magda (Hebrew: מרים‎‎), the second of the four children of Rabbi Lázár (Hebrew: אליעזר בן משה‎‎) Schönfeld (Shabbat, 9 Av 5640 (July 17, 1880) - Friday, 9 Shevat 5733 (February 1, 1974)), and Sarah (Shari in Hungarian, Hebrew: קיילה שרה‎‎) Schönfeld.

Mescheloff took care to introduce Magda to Revel and to receive his blessing. He saw Revel as his beloved Torah teacher, his role model and a very significant part of his life.

North Adams

After Mescheloff took the position of Rabbi of Congregation House of Israel, North Adams, Massachusetts (1936–1937), the Mescheloff's first of three children was born, a daughter, Renah Rachel (Hebrew: רנה רחל‎‎).

In 1936 Revel was deeply involved in his efforts to make Yeshiva College a full-fledged University. He needed funding, and contacted the famous Dr. Albert Einstein to lend his support. Revel also spoke to Rabbi Lazar Schönfeld, who spoke both German and Hungarian and was an acquaintance of Einstein. Einstein wrote a letter, in German, to Schönfeld, in which he spoke of the importance of Jewish education, and of the need for a Yeshiva where the ancient Jewish beliefs, wisdom and traditions are taught, in tandem with modern, scientific knowledge, where Jewish youth can learn without harassment and persecution. The letter was an introduction to and re-enforcement of Rabbi Revel's mission.

Upon Schönfeld's death, the Einstein letter was willed to Rabbi and Mrs. Mescheloff. It was kept in its original envelope for many years, in the Mescheloff's safety deposit box. Upon the urging of Magda's brother, Frank Schonfeld, a 1939 graduate of Yeshiva College, the Mescheloff's presented it to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where it is now part of the extensive archive of Albert Einstein papers. A copy also went to The Yeshiva University Archives.

Miami Beach

In 1937, Mescheloff became the rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation ("the Third Street shul") in Miami Beach, Florida, after the untimely, sudden passing of the previous rabbi. Beth Jacob was the only synagogue in Miami Beach at the time. There were Restrictive covenants in the land deeds of one of South Florida's biggest real estate developers in the 1920s. That is why no Jews lived north of Miami Beach's Fifth Street until the 1940s, when such limitations became unenforceable and, later, illegal.

Mescheloff made a major contribution towards completing the physical design of the synagogue. He designed its nearly 80 stained-glass windows. He designed the bimah - the central platform for the public Torah reading - by carving a model out of a block of soap for the architect.

Mescheloff played a leading role in establishing institutions for the rapid growth of the Jewish community in Miami Beach. He was the organizer and the Rav Hamachshir - the rabbi who certified the kashrut of food products and institutions - of the Vaad Hakashruth of Miami Beach. He served as President of the Dade County Rabbinical Association, Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America, Vice President of the Florida Rabbinical Association, Chairman of the Jewish National Fund of South Florida, President of Greater Miami Mizrachi, Chairman of the Greater Miami Zionist Youth Commission, and Vice President of the Miami Beach Zionist District (ZOA). He led many adult education courses and was responsible for a large Hebrew school.

Most important was the building of a mikvah. Mescheloff led in the building of the first mikvah in Miami Beach. Those who questioned the need for a mikvah had to be won over. The mikvah was built during World War II at a time when, due to limited supplies of cement, special permits were required for building concrete structures, and such a permit had to be obtained for the mikvah.

In 1939, before World War II, the Mescheloff's second child was born, a son, Efrom Zev (Hebrew: אפרים זאב‎‎).

It was also important to establish good relations between the Jewish community and the community at large, to overcome latent anti-Semitism. Mescheloff served as Secretary of the Association of Miami Beach Interfaith Clergy. He was featured on the radio for three years in South Florida as a member of a panel of “Men of Good Will”. He spoke regularly on another station promoting the cause of Zionism and the sale of Jewish National Fund trees.

When Miami Beach was taken over by the military during World War II for the training of new recruits, Rabbi Mescheloff became a civilian chaplain overnight. He was called for religious services and was flown to the men in the field where he counseled soldiers, and at home he counseled their frightened wives and parents.

It was during this time that Mescheloff became a member of the delegation who sought to save the refugees on the ship, SS St. Louis. Denied entry into Havana, Cuba, the ship sought sanctuary in the United States by docking in Miami. The delegation of some of the most prominent rabbis of the U.S. could not convince officials in Miami or Washington DC, that this was a question of life or death. Sadly the ship returned to Germany and the fate of the refugees was sealed; very few survived the European Holocaust.

In 1945, after World War II was over, the Mescheloff's youngest son, David Joseph (Hebrew: דוד יוסף‎‎), was born.

Revel had instituted the policy of inviting great European and Palestinian rabbis to give guest lectures before the yeshiva students at RIETS. Mescheloff invited many famous European rabbis, who came to Miami beach to lecture and raise funds for their yeshivot, to speak from the pulpit at Beth Jacob. He felt it was important for American Jews to experience that Torah greatness.

During the seventeen years that Mescheloff served in Miami Beach, he performed many hundreds of weddings, and, on the other hand, headed the Beth Din (Jewish ecclesiastical court) that presided over the writing of Jewish bills of divorce. In Miami Beach he came to know many highly regarded men in a more personal way, as Miami Beach became an increasingly popular winter vacation spot for visitors from the North.

Chicago

In 1954, Mescheloff moved to Chicago, in time to celebrate Hanukkah with his new congregation in West Rogers Park, Chicago, Congregation K.I.N.S. (Knesset Israel Nusach Sfard) of West Rogers Park. Rabbi Joseph Lookstein was the installing officer and guest speaker at his installation, on January 9, 1955.

This was a second period of major crisis for American Orthodox Jewish life. Sociologists and social scientists were proclaiming the end of Orthodoxy in America. Its European roots and lifeline had been destroyed in The Holocaust, and it was thought to be unable to maintain itself in the face of the newfound Jewish freedom and rampant assimilation in America.

Mescheloff worked devotedly on behalf of Torah in his congregation. The synagogue had a very large Hebrew and Sunday School, with many hundreds of students for over twenty years. Moses Mescheloff oversaw the school, encouraging students to continue their education in more intense Jewish educational environments. He officiated at thousands of Bar-Mitzvahs and Bat-Mitzvahs. He also performed thousands of weddings, visited thousands of sick people, comforted the bereaved, and officiated at funerals and memorial services. For twenty-eight years he conducted weekly Talmud classes, organized adult education courses at the synagogue, and was one of the lecturers. The cumulative effect of his life's work was to leave an indelible imprint on the lives of tens of thousands for whom he ministered at crucial turning points in their lives.

Mescheloff also worked tirelessly for the advancement of Torah living in the general Jewish community. He made a major contribution to bringing about the renaissance of the Orthodox Jewish community in America. Through his religious Zionist work he also made a major contribution to the renaissance of Torah true Jewish life in Israel.

Over the years Rabbi Mescheloff held many positions in Chicago. He served as president of the Chicago Rabbinical Council (CRC), president of the Chicago Religious Zionist Council and president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. He was Chairman of the CRC's Publication Committee. Together with Rabbi Schachnowitz, he was co-chairman of the Joint Vaad Hakashruth of the CRC and the Mercaz Harabbonim. He was a member of Chicago’s Jewish Community Relations Council, the Council for Jewish Elderly and was involved in many public causes. He was featured on the radio in a series of lectures on World literature and appeared on Chicago television programs presented by the Chicago Board of Rabbis, including several series: "The Jewish Court", "Some of My Best Friends", and "Sanctuary".

Mescheloff was called upon frequently to open Chicago City Council meetings with an invocation. On one of these occasions, on May 13, 1981, the Mayor received word that Pope John Paul II had been shot. Mescheloff, still in the Council chambers, was called upon to offer prayers for his recovery. His non-sectarian prayer was then re-broadcast throughout that day. He served as an officer or a member of the Board of the Mayor's Advisory Council on Human Relations, the Chicago Commission on Race and Religion, the North Town Community Council, the North Town Inter-faith Fellowship, the Chicago Inter-religious Council for the Homeless, the Mayor's Advisory Council for the Department on Aging, and the North Town/Rogers Park Division for Chicago's Mental Health Association.

Mescheloff was elected by the Hall of Fame Selection Committee and inducted by Mayor Richard M. Daley into Chicago's Senior Hall of Fame, at a full session of the City Council on May 25, 1989. Mescheloff was honored by the city of Chicago on May 1, 2002, when Vice-Mayor Alderman Bernard L. Stone unveiled a street sign in front of the entrance to Congregation K.I.N.S., “Honorary Rabbi Moses Mescheloff Street”. Stone noted that "Not only did he have all the attributes of a rabbi — knowledgeable, articulate — he was an exceptionally kind and gentle man."

Mescheloff was a member of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) from 1935 until his death, for seventy-five years. He contributed annually to the RCA’s Sermon Manual for as long as it was published. Subsequently, he contributed sermons to the RCA’s holiday brochures, as well as scholarly articles for the RCA’s Hadarom (in Hebrew). He also wrote scholarly articles for Oraita (in Israel), and Chadashot (CRC) and has written articles on Judaism and on Jewish life for the Chicago Sentinel, Hadassah Women and AMIT Women magazines. The Legal Encyclopedia, “Florida Law on the Family, Marriage and Divorce” includes his chapter, entitled “Procedure in Obtaining a Jewish Divorce”. See a partial list of his publications below.

In 1980 Mescheloff received the degree Doctor of Hebrew Literature from the graduate school of the Hebrew Theological College of Skokie, Illinois, Summa Cum Laude. He is listed in the Biographical Encyclopedia of American Jews, Who's Who in World Jewry and Who's Who in World Zionism.

After ten years, the congregation signed a life contract with Mescheloff. From 1982 he served as Rabbi Emeritus. Mescheloff worked in close cooperation and mutual respect and admiration with the two rabbis who followed him, in succession, as spiritual leaders of the congregation. They sat together at the front of the congregation during services. Rabbi Dr. Leonard Matanky has continued to lead the congregation as the central religious zionist synagogue in the Midwest, continuing the tradition of deep involvement in Jewish education and other Jewish and civic activities. When each new rabbi was away, Mescheloff would deliver sermons and teach Torah classes in his absence.

Mescheloff's communal work continued apace well into his mid-nineties. He could be seen walking to the synagogue daily at a pace that tired young men who might accompany him, sitting in the Beit Midrash, attending lectures in halakha by Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, the head of the Bet Din of the RCA and the CRC, listening intently to Talmud lessons over the internet, and preparing Torah messages. Mescheloff made himself available to others for discussing Torah, academic and Jewish community issues of all types.

A few months before Mescheloff's ninety-ninth birthday, he took ill, and died, in Chicago, on Friday, 4 Iyyar 5768 (May 9, 2008)). He was interred in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Fairview, New Jersey, near his in-laws, Rabbi Dr. and Mrs. Schonfeld. He was survived by his wife of seventy-three years, Magda, their three children, sixteen grandchildren, and nearly sixty great-grandchildren, the great majority of whom are in Israel.

The Mescheloff children followed in their parents' path: Renah (married to Rabbi Alexander Bell), Rabbi Dr. Efrom Mescheloff (married to Felice, née Rosenberg), and Rabbi Dr. David Mescheloff (married to Irene, née Goldschmidt). The two sons are both members of the Rabbinical Council of America, and both immigrated to Israel and established large Othodox Jewish families there.

Mescheloff’s semikhah bears the signature of Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, who was the Rosh yeshiva of RIETS during the 1930s. Mescheloff was one of thirteen rabbis ordained in America by Moshe Soloveitchik. The semicha of Mescheloff's older son, Efrom, was signed by Soloveitchik's son, Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, who followed his father as Rosh Yeshiva of RIETS. Mescheloff's younger son, David, received his semicha from the Hebrew Theological College of Skokie, where a younger son of Soloveitchik's, Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, then the Rosh Yeshiva, signed his semikhah.