Yaakov Ben Zion Mendelson

Rabbi Yaakov Benzion HaCohen Mendelsohn (Hebrew: יעקב בן ציון הכהן מענדעלסאן) (October 12 1875–August 5 1941) was a renowned Orthodox communal rabbi, Talmudist, Halachist, rabbinical author and scholar.

Rabbi Mendelson was born in 1875, in Kreitzburg, part of the Vitebsk district of what was then Russia, to his parents Menachem and Beila Rochel. After receiving rigorous Talmudic education, he married his wife Feiga at the age of twenty-two. Shortly thereafter, Rabbi Mendelson immigrated to England, serving first as the Rabbi/Dayan of Leeds (and of the ‘Chevras Torah’ shul therein) and then Gateshead until 1905, from where he moved to Glasgow to serve there for a decade.

Rabbi Mendelson relocated to the USA in 1915, and in 1919 took up the Rabbinical position of the Brisk d’Lita shul in Newark, New Jersey. In 1921 he was appointed as the rabbi of Newark, with primary jurisdiction over matters of Shechita and Kashrus. Rabbi Mendelson was then the Rabbi of Adas Yisroel in the city, before moving to Congregation Beis Hamedrash in Newark in 1934.

Distinguished for his scholarship and devotion to the Jewish community, Rabbi Mendelson was appointed vice-president of the Assembly of Orthodox Rabbis of the USA and Canada. Rabbi Mendelson died in 1941, leaving a widow, five sons, four daughters and twelve grandchildren. Another son, Shmuel Dov, had died suddenly in Gateshead in 1905.

Works

Rabbi Mendelson was a talented author of Talmudic and Rabbinic works. He wrote:

• Sha’arei Tzion (1903) - on the Talmud (with approbation from Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen, Dayan of Vilna)
• Sefer Hatzid (1904) - about the laws of covering the blood of sacrificial offerings,
• Midrash Yaavetz (Glasgow 1911) - Halacha and Aggadah on the Book of Genesis (with approbations from Rabbi Nosson Halevi Bamberger of Wurzburg; Rabbi Menachem Dovber Dagutski of Manchester; Rabbi Refoel Zilberman of Tzfas; Rabbi Eliyahu Posek of Alapolia in Russia; Rabbi Eliezer Dan Yachai of Lutzin and Rabbi Shlomo Yaakov Koton of Leshenov, and with a warm letter from Rabbi Akiva HaCohen Matlon of Heina in Minsk province, then-Russia)
• Mishnas Yaavetz (Newark 1928, three volumes) – Vol. One about androgynous, Vol. Two of Talmudic novellae, and Vol. Three of responsa

External links to Rabbi Mendelson's works

• Midrash Yaavetz
• Mishnas Yaavetz
  • Volume One
  • Volume Two
  • Volume Three

Sources

• Semi-autobiographic intoruction to Midrash Yaavetz (pages 8-9)
• American Jewish Year Book Vol. 44 (1942-1943)
• New York Times Archives