Rabbi Eliezer Silver in his younger years

A famous picture of Rabbi Eliezer Silver

Rabbi Eliezer Silver (15 February 1882 - 1968) was the President of the Agudath HaRabbonim of America and among American Jewry's foremost religious leaders. He helped save many thousands of Jews in the Second World War and held several Rabbinical positions in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Ohio. February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1882 (MDCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Official language(s) None Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... Official language(s) None Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  Ranked 33rd  - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²)  - Width 160 miles (255 km)  - Length 280 miles (455 km)  - % water 2. ... Official language(s) English Capital Boston Largest city Boston Area  Ranked 44th  - Total 10,555 sq mi (27,360 km²)  - Width 183 miles (295 km)  - Length 113 miles (182 km)  - % water 13. ... Official language(s) None Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus Largest metro area Cleveland Area  Ranked 34th  - Total 44,825 sq mi (116,096 km²)  - Width 220 miles (355 km)  - Length 220 miles (355 km)  - % water 8. ...

Biography

Rabbi Silver was born in Kovno, Lithuania, one of two sons. He had centuries-old rabbinic ancestry and on his mother's side was a descendant of King David. City Flag Kaunas (Polish: Kowno, often anglicized as Kovno; Russian Каунас, formerly Ковно), is the second largest city in Lithuania with 400,000 inhabitants. ... This page is about the Biblical king David. ...

He studied in Dvinsk, with Rabbi Yosef Rosen (the "Rogatchover Gaon") and received Semicha from Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in 1906. He immigrated to the United States with his wife in 1907, to escape the anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. The young couple settled in New York City, where Rabbi Silver worked as a garment salesman and later sold insurance. Daugavpils (Belarusian Дзьвінск Dźvinsk, Russian Двинcк Dvinsk, Lithuanian Daugpilis, German Dünaburg, Polish Dzwinow or Dźwińsk, Yiddish דענענבורג Denenburg), population 115,265 in 2000... The Rogatchover Gaon (Rabbi Yosef Rosen, 1858-3 March 1936), also known by the name of his main work Tzafnath Paneach, was one of prominent Talmudic scholars of the early 20th century. ... Semicha (סמיכה -- meaning leaning [of the hands] or סמיכה לרבנות -- rabbinical ordination) is a Hebrew word referring to what may be roughly translated as the ordination (in Hebrew: semichut סמיכות) of a rabbi within Judaism. ... Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski HaGaon HaRav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) was a world renowned pre-war Dayan and Posek (Halachic decisor) in Vilna. ... Official language Russian Official Religion Russian Orthodox Christianity Capital Saint Petersburg (Petrograd 1914-1924) Area Approx. ... Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps, Gotham Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Manhattan Queens Brooklyn Staten Island Settled 1613 Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ...

However, Rabbi Silver soon accepted a Rabbinical position in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His great Torah scholarship soon drew him into leading Orthodox circles on the national level. In 1912, he was part of a delegation of rabbis that asked President William Howard Taft to void a treaty with Russia because of Russia's persecution of Jews. Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Dauphin Incorporated 1791 Charter 1860 Mayor Stephen R. Reed (D) Area    - City 26. ... Orthodox Judaism is the formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts (The Oral Law) and as subsequently developed and applied by the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim. ... William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930) was an American politician, the 27th President of the United States, the 10th Chief Justice of the United States, a leader of the progressive conservative wing of the Republican Party in the early twentieth century, a chaired professor at Yale Law...

In 1914, when Rabbi Silver traveled abroad to visit his parents, he was caught in Russia as World War I broke out. Stranded for seven months by Russia's refusal to recognize an American passport issued to a Jew, he eventually crossed the border into Norway under an assumed name and returned home in 1915. Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul...

Rabbi Silver was active in relief efforts in World War I. In 1925 he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. Around 1931, he accepted an invitation to become Rabbi in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained until his passing.   Nickname: City of Homes Springfield, Massachusetts - View from Highway Settled: 1636 â€“ Incorporated: 1636 Zip Code(s): 01103 01107 01108 01119 01129 â€“ Area Code(s): 413 Official website: http://www. ... Nickname: The Queen City Location in Hamilton County, Ohio, USA Coordinates: Country United States State Ohio County Hamilton Founded 1788 Incorporated 1819 Mayor Mark L. Mallory (D) Area    - City 206. ... Official language(s) None Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus Largest metro area Cleveland Area  Ranked 34th  - Total 44,825 sq mi (116,096 km²)  - Width 220 miles (355 km)  - Length 220 miles (355 km)  - % water 8. ...

Rabbi Silver was very active in the Agudath HaRabbonim, elected its president in 1929. He was also a pivotal founder, organiser and president of Agudath Israel of America. Agudath Israel of America (or Agudas Yisroel of America or Agudat Yisrael of America or simply the Agudah [agudah is Hebrew for gathering or union]), is a Haredi Jewish communal organization in the United States loosely affiliated with the international World Agudath Israel. ...

World War II rescue activities

Rabbi Silver convened an emergency meeting in November 1939 in New York City, where the Vaad Hatzalah (Rescue Committee), was formed, with Rabbi Silver as president. Rabbi Silver spearheaded its efforts in rescuing as many European Torah scholars as possible from Nazi Europe. National Socialism redirects here. ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ...

Rabbi Silver launched a fund-raising drive that raised more than $5 million, and also capitalised on an exemption to US immigration quotas allowing entry to ministers or religious students. At his direction, synagogues in Cincinnati and across the country sent contracts to rabbis, thereby securing 2,000 emergency visas that were telegraphed to Eastern Europe. In the United States, the Emergency Quota Act (ch. ... Cincinnati, Ohio viewed from the SW, across the Ohio River from Kentucky. ... Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... Regions of Europe as delineated by the United Nations (UN definition of Eastern Europe marked salmon):  Northern Europe  Western Europe  Eastern Europe  Southern Europe Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current national boundaries: Russia (dark orange), other countries of the former USSR (medium...

With the increasingly desperate race against time, the Vaad, under Rabbi Silver turned to all channels, whether legal or not ^[1] , to save as many lives as possible by bringing Jews to the US, Canada and Palestine. Sympathetic foreign diplomats provided fake visas for perilous immigration routes; counterfeiters were paid to produce phony passports. Palestine and Transjordan were incorporated (under different legal and administrative arrangements) into the Mandate for Palestine issued by the League of Nations to Great Britain on 29 September, 1923. ... Visa or VISA has several meanings: Look up visa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Visa (document) — a document required to enter a specific country. ... The biometric British passport contains information about the holder that has been encoded into an electronic chip. ...

During WWII, a Vaad representative in Switzerland even negotiated with the SS, offering to ransom concentration camp prisoners for cash and tractors - talks that freed hundreds from Bergen-Belsen and other death camps. SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop... Present-day entrance to Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen, (or Belsen) was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. ...

In October 1943, as the scale of Nazi atrocities was becoming shockingly clearer, Rabbi Silver helped organise and lead a mass rally of more than 400 rabbis in Washington to press for more decisive action by the US government to save European Jews. The rally was organized by Hillel Kook's "Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe". ^[2] Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: Federal District District of Columbia Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) City Council Chairperson: Linda W. Cropp (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2: Jack Evans... Hillel Kook (1915-2001), also known as Peter Bergson, was a Revisionist Zionist activist, politician, and prominent member of the Irgun. ...

On the steps of the Capitol, Vice President Henry A. Wallace heard Rabbi Silver's plea to deliver European Jews from extermination. The public reaction to President Roosevelt's snub (where he avoided meeting the rabbis) helped build pressure to form the War Refugee Board, which rescued tens of thousands of Jews. ^[2] The United States Capitol is the capitol building that serves as the location for the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. ... Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was the 33rd Vice President of the United States (1941–45), the 11th Secretary of Agriculture (1933–40), and the 10th Secretary of Commerce (1945–46). ... FDR redirects here. ...

Rabbi Silver's ceaseless lobbying of the White House, the Vatican, the Kremlin and neutral governments on behalf of Europe's Jews directly saved at least 10,000 lives and helped spare tens of thousands more. North façade of the White House, seen from Pennsylvania Avenue. ... Kremlin (Russian: Кремль IPA: ) is the Russian word for fortress, citadel, or castle and refers to any major fortified central complex found in historical Russian cities. ...

Post-World War II

After the war, when the full extent of the Nazi atrocities came to light, a stunned but focused Rabbi Silver began planning for reconstruction. In 1946, he distributed relief funds and helped expedite visas to Jews in eight European nations - wearing, with government permission, a US Army uniform for extra protection in areas where anti-Semitism was still rife. When donations were insufficient, Rabbi Silver often spent his own money to meet refugees' needs. The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ...

In the post-war years, when Rabbi Silver helped many Jews escape the Communist countries of Europe behind the Iron Curtain, he personally guaranteed countless loans - many of which he had to repay himself. This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Countries to the east of the Iron Curtain are shaded red; those to the west of it — blue. ...

Rabbi Silver died penniless in 1968. He was interred at Washington Cemetery (Knesseth Israel) in Cincinnati. He had been Rabbi of the Kneseth Israel Congregation in Cincinnati for nearly 40 years. He authored the Seforim Anfe Erez. Sefer (Heb. ...

References

1. ^ Barry M. Horstman (5 Nov 1999). Eliezer Silver: Rabbi rescued thousands. Cincinnati Post. Retrieved on 2006-06-06.
2. ^ ^{a b} Dr. Rafael Medoff (October 2003). The Day the Rabbis Marched on Washington. Retrieved on 2006-07-06.

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External links

• Rabbi Eliezer Silver, hebrewbooks.org
• He Saved Thousands, ou.org