Joseph Weinreb

Joseph (Yosef) Weinreb (1869–1943), also known as the "Galitzianer Rav," was the first chief rabbi of Toronto, Canada.

Rabbi Joseph (Yosef) Weinreb
Rabbi Joseph Weinreb, c. 1917
Title	Rabbi
Personal life
Born	Yosef Weinreb 1869 Busk, Galicia
Died	1942 Toronto
Nationality	Canadian
Religious life
Religion	Judaism
Denomination	Orthodox
Jewish leader
Successor	Gedalia Felder
Position	Rabbi
Position	Chief Rabbi
Organisation	Shomrai Shabbos congregation
Began	1900
Ended	1942
Buried	Jones Avenue Cemetery, Toronto

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.

Biography

Joseph Weinreb was born in Busk, Galicia, son of Rabbi Baruch Shlomo Weinreb and his wife Soore Ratze.^[1]

Rabbinic career

He worked 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