Wolf Gold

Rabbi Wolf Gold ( _he. זאב גולד, Ze'ev Gold, born Zev Krawczynski in 1889, died April 8 1956) was a rabbi, Jewish activist, and one of the signatories of the Israeli declaration of independence

Biography

Born in Stettin, Germany (today Szczecin in Poland) he was descended on his fathers side to at least eight generations of rabbis. Gold's first teacher was his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Yehoshuah Goldwasser. Later he studied at the Mir yeshiva under Rabbi Eliyahu Baruch Kamei. From there Gold moved on to study in Lida at Yeshiva Torah Vo'Da'as - the yeshiva of Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines where Torah was combined with secular studies. Gold was ordained as a Rabbi at the age of 17 by Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz of Minsk, and succeeded his father-in-law Rabbi Moshe Reichler, as rabbi in Juteka.

At the age of 18 he moved to the United States where he served as Rabbi in several communities including South Chicago, Scranton, Pennsylvania (until 1913), Williamsburg, Brooklyn (until 1919), San Francisco (until 1924) and Borough Park, Brooklyn at Congregation Shomrei Emunah (until 1935).

He was a pioneer in building Torah in the United States. He founded the Williamsburg Talmud Torah and Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in 1917. [Encyclopedia Judaica - Keter Publishing, 1972 - Volume 7, Page 697.] [A Fire in His Soul by Amos Bunim - Feldheim Publishers, 1989, page 250] [Rabbi Yissocher Frand: In Print - Artscroll Publishers, 1995 pages 218-219] [ Orthodox Judaism in America by Moshe D. Sherman - Greenwood Press, 1996 page 78,] He started the Beth Moshe hospital and an orphanage in Brooklyn and also founded a Hebrew teachers training college in San Francisco.

In 1914, Rabbi Gold invited Rabbi Meir Berlin, secretary of the World Mizrachi, to come to New York to organize a branch of Mizrachi in the United States. For the next 40 years, Rabbi Gold traveled throughout the United States and Canada organizing chapters of the Mizrachi movement and became president of American Mizrachi in 1932. [Moshe Sherman, Orthodox Judaism in America, (Ct. 1996), pp. 78-79.]

In 1935 he immigrated to Eretz Israel, where he became the head of the Department of Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora in which capacity he was instrumental in establishing new educational institutions in all parts of the Diaspora, devoting himself particularly to the educational needs of North African Jewry.

During World War II he was involved in fighting the British White Paper of 1939 and toiled to rescue European Jewry from the Holocaust at the hands of the Germans. In 1943 he traveled to the United States where he participated as a speaker on behalf of European Jewry at the Rabbis' march in Washington.

He was a member of the Jewish Agency Executive, heading the Department for Jerusalem Development.

He served as Vice-President of the Provisional Council of State and went on to sign the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948, [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/signers.html The Signatories of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel] Jewish Virtual Library] . He served on the founding committee of Bar-Ilan University.

On April 8, 1956, Rabbi Gold died in Jerusalem and was buried near his lifelong friend Rabbi Meir Berlin.

Two years after his death in Jerusalem, a Jewish woman’s teacher training seminary was established in the city and named after him; Machon Gold. [ [http://www.machongold.org/history.php The History of Machon Gold] Machon Gold]

References