Rabbi Jacob Joseph School

The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is an Orthodox Jewish day school located in Staten Island, New York that serves students from nursery through twelfth grade, with another branch in Edison, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1903 by Rabbi Shmuel Yitzchok Andron and named in honor of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.[1]

After Rabbi Andron's death, his son Raphael and Samuel I. Andron obtained a charter from the New York Board of Regents in 1903 to establish a school in his name. The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School was known for its rigorous Talmudic curriculum and remains open to students from nursery age through the twelfth grade.

Its founders originally established the school on Manhattan's Orchard Street in the Lower East Side. It moved to Henry Street in 1907, and expanded to a second building in 1914.[2] Lazarus Joseph (1891–1966), grandson of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, and New York state senator and New York City Comptroller, played an active role as a board member in the school.[3][4]

1969–present

In 1969, it stopped its younger grades. Enrollment was low, and the neighborhood had become rough.[2] In 1972, it made plans to open a new campus in Riverdale,[2] but ultimately, in 1976, the school moved to the Richmondtown area of Staten Island, where it maintained the boys' school campus until 2017 (they then moved to Amboy Rd); a girls division of the elementary school was established in Staten Island's Graniteville section. In 1982, a boys high school branch and Beis Medrash was opened in Edison, New Jersey.

Although the school ("RJJ") is no longer an "advanced" yeshiva, it "produced hundred of rabbis and community leaders in the late 1940s, the 1950s and the 1960s, and was also an important feeder school for the Lakewood yeshiva, Beis Medrash Govoha".[5]

The school also produces a semi-annual scholarly publication, the Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society ("The RJJ Journal"), edited by one of its rabbinic alumni. The purpose of the Journal is to "study the major questions facing Jews ... through the prism of Torah values," and "explore the relevant biblical and Talmudic passages and survey the halakhic literature including the most recent responsa. The Journal does not in any way seek to present itself as the halachic authority on any question, but hopes rather to inform the Jewish public of the positions taken by rabbinic leaders over the generations."

Rabbi Dr. Marvin Schick served for over 30 years as the (unpaid) President of RJJ until his death in 2020; he had succeeded Irving Bunim.[2]

Notable alumni

References

  1. ^ A. Leib Scheinbaum (2022). Tov L'HoDos. Hebrew Academy of Cleveland. pp. 13–15. ISBN 978-0-9635120-0-0.
  2. ^ a b c d Freeman, William M. (May 14, 1972). "Jewish School Quits the Lower East Side as Perilous". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  3. ^ L. Levine. "Irving Bunim: A Fire in his Soul" (PDF).
  4. ^ "As New York Once Again Targets Religious Schools, a History Lesson in Communal Resistance". August 12, 2019.
  5. ^ William B. Helmreich. The World of the Yeshiva. p. 360. ISBN 0-300-03715-5., footnote 63
  6. ^ Hart, Sergiu. "An interview with Robert Aumann", Hebrew University of Jerusalem, June 2006. Accessed October 23, 2010.
  7. ^ Goldman, Ari L. "Yeshivas Defy The Odds", The New York Times, January 5, 1992. Accessed October 23, 2010.
  8. ^ von Gutfield, Sonia. "Columbia Celebrates the Human Rights Legacy Of Professor Louis Henkin" Archived 2008-11-22 at the Wayback Machine, Columbia Law School. Accessed October 23, 2010.
  9. ^ Zuroff, Avraham. Rabbi Wittow, Behind the Wheel With Harav Scheinberg. Hamodia Magazine, 2 June 2011, pp. 26–27. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  10. ^ Alpert, Yair (May 26, 2011). "Tefillos for Rav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg". matzav.com. Retrieved June 16, 2011.
  11. ^ McKinley, Jr., James C. "Silver Is an Albany Strongman, And It's Not Because He's Flashy", The New York Times, February 11, 2003. Accessed October 23, 2010.

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