Sheea Herschorn

Sheea Halevy Herschorn (Hebrew: יהושע הלוי הירשהאָרן‎, romanized: Yehoshu‘a ha-Levi Hirshhorn; 1893, Krilovitz – 15 May 1969, Montreal)[1] was a Russian-born Canadian Jewish communal leader and posek, who served as Chief Rabbi of Montreal from 1951 until 1961.

Chief Rabbi

Sheea Halevy Herschorn
Portrait of Herschorn by Gabriel Desmarais
Personal
Born1893 (1893)
Krilovitz, Podolian Governorate, Russian Empire
Died15 May 1969(1969-05-15) (aged 75–76)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
ReligionJudaism
Spouse
Molly (Malca) Surkes
​
​
(m. 1922)​
DenominationOrthodox
Jewish leader
PredecessorTzvi Hirsch Cohen
SuccessorPinhas Hirschprung
PositionChief Rabbi of Montreal
OrganisationVaad Ha‘ir of Montreal
Began1951 (1951)
Ended1961 (1961)
Main workMi-Ma‘ayanei Yeshua (1959)

Biography

Sheea Herschorn was born in Krilovitz, Polodia to a distinguished rabbinic family, the son of Zissel (née Weitman) and Rabbi Sender Herschorn.[2] He received his main rabbinic training from his father, later studying at the University of Odessa and various yeshivot across Lithuania and Poland.[3] Among his teachers were Rabbis Moshe Nathan Rubinstein (av beit din of Vinnitsa), Leib Braude (av beit din of Lemberg), and Avraham Tzvi Perlmutter. He was ordained at the age of 19, and went on to serve on the rabbinical council of his hometown.[4]

Herschorn fled to Warsaw in 1919, amid the wave of anti-Jewish massacres that began in Ukraine after the First World War.[1][3] He emigrated to Montreal, Canada in the summer of 1921, where he had relatives, and occupied the pulpit at Temple Solomon. From March 1926 he also served as rabbi of Congregation Beth David, and soon concurrently at Congregation Beth Yitzchak.[5][6]

Herschorn was a founding member of the Montreal Jewish Community Council (Va’ad ha-‘Ir), inaugurated in late 1922, and its Orthodox Rabbinical Council (Va’ad ha-Rabbanim).[7] A schism within the group led him, vice president Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg, and a group of shoḥtim to secede from the Council and form the United Synagogue in February 1923.[8] The two organizations re-merged in December 1925, and Herschorn ultimately became the rabbinate's vice president in 1936. Herschorn was appointed president of the Rabbinical Council in 1951, succeeding Hirsch Cohen as Chief Rabbi of Montreal.[9]

In 1959, Herschorn published his most celebrated work, Mi-Ma’ayanei Yeshua (lit. 'Wellsprings of Salvation'), a collection of responsa to Halakhic queries, prefaced by a haskama from the late Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.[10]

He died on 15 May 1969 (28 Iyar 5729), and was buried in an ohel at the Kehal Israel Memorial Park in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.[11]

Personal life

Sheea Herschorn married Molly (Malca) Surkes on 7 July 1922.[12] They had one son, Michael Julius (Meshulam Jehuda), a Professor at McGill University's Department of Mathematics from 1958 until his retirement in 1998.[2][13]

Herschorn's father, sister Sarah, and her husband and son were murdered in the Holocaust in 1941.[10]

Partial bibliography
  • Herschorn, Sheea (1959). Mi-Ma'ayanei Yeshua: Teshuvot le-Halakha ve-Pilpulim [Memainey Jeshuah: Responda and Treatises on Talmudic Law] (in Hebrew). Montreal.

References
  1. "Obituary: Rabbi S. Herschorn". The Gazette. Montreal. 17 May 1969. p. 9.
  2. Gottesman, Eli (1965). Who's Who in Canadian Jewry. Montreal: Jewish Institute of Higher Research. p. 94. OCLC 11809342.
  3. Robinson, Ira (2007). "Herschorn, Joshua (Sheea) Halevy". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. 9 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. p. 44.
  4. Rand, Asher Z.; Greenblatt, Aharon Moshe (1950). Toldot Anshei Shem (in Hebrew). 1. New York: Chevrat Toldot Anshei Shem. p. 44. OCLC 233091961.
  5. "Rabbi S. Herschorn". Canadian Jewish Review. Montreal. 11 (48): 90. 19 September 1930.
  6. Hamerman, Shimshon. "Highlights from Our Living Past: 1886–1998". Congregation Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  7. Robinson, Ira (27 June 2011). "'The Other Side of the Coin': The Anatomy of a Public Controversy in the Montreal Jewish Community, 1931". Studies in Religion. 40 (3): 271–282. doi:10.1177/0008429811410816. ISSN 0008-4298. S2CID 143943116.
  8. Robinson, Ira (2007). Rabbis and Their Community: Studies in the Eastern European Orthodox Rabbinate in Montreal, 1896–1930. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. ISBN 978-1-55238-186-1. OCLC 243575174.
  9. Robinson, Ira (2019). "1944: A Year in the Life of a Montreal Orthodox Rabbi". Canadian Jewish Studies. 27: 139–150. doi:10.25071/1916-0925.40109. ISSN 1916-0925.
  10. Herschorn, Sheea (1959). Mi-Ma'ayanei Yeshua: Teshuvot le-Halakha ve-Pilpulim [Memainey Jeshuah: Responda and Treatises on Talmudic Law] (in Hebrew). Montreal.
  11. "Rabbi Yehoshua Halevy Herschorn". Find a Grave. 17 June 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  12. "Marriage: Rabbi Sheea Herschorn and Molly Surkes" (7 July 1922) [Microfilm]. Drouin Collection, Series: Temple Solomon Congregation (1922), p. 7. Montreal: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
  13. Resolution on the Death of Professor Michael Herschorn (PDF). Meeting of Faculty. Montreal: Faculty of Science, McGill University. 8 April 2008. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
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