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. The school was founded in 1903 and named in honor of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.
After Joseph'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, but later moved it to Henry Street. In 1976, the school moved to the Richmondtown area of Staten Island, where it still maintains the boys' school campus; 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, Beth Medrash Govoha".[1]
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 halachic 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 has served for over 30 years as the (unpaid) President of RJJ.
Notable alumni
- Robert Aumann (born 1930), recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2005.[2]
- Ari L. Goldman (born 1949), author and former religion reporter for The New York Times.[3]
- Louis Henkin (1923-2010), human rights law scholar.[4]
- Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg (1910-2012), founder and head of Torah Ore yeshiva in the Kiryat Mattersdorf neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel,[5] world-renowned educator and decisor of Jewish law, and member of Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Israel.[6]
- Sheldon Silver (born 1944), Speaker of the New York State Assembly.[7]
- Meir Zlotowitz, founder of Artscroll publications.
References
- ^ The World of the Yeshiva, by William B. Helmreich, p. 360, footnote 63, ISBN 0-300-03715-5
- ^ Hart, Sergiu. "An interview with Robert Aumann", Hebrew University of Jerusalem, June 2006. Accessed October 23, 2010.
- ^ Goldman, Ari L. "Yeshivas Defy The Odds", The New York Times, January 5, 1992. Accessed October 23, 2010.
- ^ von Gutfield, Sonia. "Columbia Celebrates the Human Rights Legacy Of Professor Louis Henkin", Columbia Law School. Accessed October 23, 2010.
- ^ Zuroff, Avraham. Rabbi Wittow, Behind the Wheel With Harav Scheinberg. Hamodia Magazine, 2 June 2011, pp. 26–27. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
- ^ Alpert, Yair (26 May 2011). "Tefillos for Rav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg". matzav.com. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
- ^ 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.
External links
- Yeshiva Merkaz Hatorah of Staten Island - Contact info for RJJ school branches