Sidebar

Contents

People
Jews born in or connected to Latvia

Search people

Culture
Cultural and social life of Latvian Jews

Geography
Towns and cities where Jews lived in Latvia

R. Yaakov Dov son of R. Avraham Rappaport

Riebiņi / Rybnishtki

Born in 5620 (1860)1) in the town of Alytus, Lithuania.

Son-in-law of R. Yosef Zecharia Stern, chief rabbi of Šiauliai and author of the responsa Zekher Yehoseph.2)

He was chief rabbi of Rybnishtki from approximately 5648 (1888) until 5657 (1897),3) when he was accepted as chief rabbi of Zeimel.

He ascended to the Land of Israel in 5686 (1926) and served as the first rabbi of the moshava Kfar Saba, where he passed away on Motzaei Shabbat Kodesh, 18 Marcheshvan 5688 (13 November 1927), and there is his resting place.

Several responsa to him were printed in the responsa Zekher Yehoseph of his father-in-law (sections 122, 204, 237, 238, 248).

In his youth he composed the pamphlets Cheiker Din (booklets 1–2, Odessa 5647), and Torah novellae from him were printed in the collections Sha'arei Tzion and in the collections Moriah.

Yahadut Lita, vol. 3, pp. 96 and 314. Entsiklopediya LeChalutzei HaYishuv uVonav, vol. 1, p. 157 (where it states he served as chief rabbi of Rybnishtki for 12 years). Yidishe Shtet, p. 19 (where it states he served as rabbi in Rybnishtki from 1886 — 5646; but this does not accord with the letter from his wife's grandfather cited in the note) and p. 585.

Latvia and Rabbis

1)
According to other sources — 5622. See also the collection Sha'arei Tzion, year 8, p. 16.
2)
In Shnot Dor vaDor, vol. 3, p. 345, a letter to him from his wife's grandfather, the Gaon R. Mordechai Gimpel Yafeh, rabbi of Razinai, is printed, dated 6 Shevat 5648, and at the end of the letter he asks him “whether a place of rest has already appeared before him.”
3)
In place of R. Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook. In Tevet 5657 he is already mentioned as chief rabbi of Zeimel.