Pinchas Hirschprung (; 13 July 1912,

Dukla Dukla is a town and an eponymous municipality in southeastern Poland, in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 2,017. The total area of the commune is . Dukla belongs to Lesser Poland, and until the Pa ...

, Galicia – 25 January 1998,

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

, ''

posek In Jewish law, a ''posek'' ( , pl. ''poskim'', ) is a legal scholar who determines the application of ''halakha'', the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah, in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities are incon ...

'', and ''

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...

'', who served as

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

from 1969 until his death.

Biography

Early life

Pinchas Hirschprung was born in 1912 to Leah (née Zehmin) and Rabbi Chaim Hirschprung in the Galician

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

(now located in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

). His grandfather, Rabbi Dovid Tzvi (Tevli) Zehmin, a Chortkov Ḥasid best known for his work ''Sefer Minḥat Solet'', served as the town's ''

av beit din The ''av beit din'' (), abbreviated ( ''avad''), was the second-highest-ranking member of the Sanhedrin during the Second Temple period and served as an assistant to the nasi. The av beit din was known as the "Master of the Court;" he was consid ...

''. Zehmin was the teacher of

Rebbe A Rebbe () or Admor () is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spirituality (Audio)''. UCTV, 20 Oct 2011. web. ...

Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (; January 10, 1905 – June 18, 1994) was a rebbe (hereditary rabbinical leader) of the Hasidic Judaism, Hasidic dynasty of Klausenburg (Hasidic dynasty), Sanz-Klausenburg. Early life Halberstam was born in 1905 in ...

and of the Klausenburg and Pshevorsk Ḥasidic dynasties, respectively. Through his maternal great-grandfather, Yosef Moshe Teicher, Hirschprung was a direct descendant of

Solomon Luria Shlomo Luria (1510 – November 7, 1573) () was one of the great Ashkenazic ''poskim'' (decisors of Jewish law) and teachers of his time. He is known for his work of Halakha, ''Yam Shel Shlomo'', and his Talmudic commentary ''Chochmat Shlomo''. L ...

and Saul Wahl Katzenellenbogen. Hirschprung received his early religious education from his grandfather, later becoming a student of Rabbi

Meir Shapiro Yehuda Meir Shapiro (; 3 March 1887 – 27 October 1933) was a prominent Polish Hasidic rabbi and rosh yeshiva, also known as the Lubliner Rav. He is noted for his promotion of the Daf Yomi study program in 1923, and establishing the Cha ...

at Yeshivat Ḥakhmei Lublin. He purportedly wrote his first ''

sefer Sefer may refer to: * Sefer (Hebrew), a term for a book People with the surname * Franjo Šefer (born 1905), Yugoslav tennis player * Bela Šefer, Yugoslav footballer playing in 1924 People with the forename * Sefer Reis, Turkish privateer and O ...

'', ''Pri Pinchas'', at the age of 13, and, according to Rabbi Shapiro, knew all 2,711 folio pages of the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

by heart as a youth. He also became proficient in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. Hirschprung began teaching at the Yeshiva after his

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in 1932, and became its head of admissions upon Shapiro's death the following October. At the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Rabbi Hirschprung smuggled himself from Nazi-occupied Poland into Lithuania. From there, he escaped to

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, where he remained for nine months. He left for

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

in the fall of 1941, and from there for North America, finally arriving in

on 23 October 1941.

Career

Not long after his arrival in Canada, Rabbi Hirschprung accepted the positions of rabbi of the Adath Yeshurun Synagogue on

Saint Urbain Street Saint Urbain Street () is a major one-way street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The original, southernmost section of the street was built by Urbain Tessier (c. 1624–1689), a farmer and carpenter who settled in the area. The name also mak ...

, and of

at the newly founded Yeshivas Merkaz HaTorah. He also became involved in the affairs of the Va'ad ha-Ir (Jewish Community Council) of Montreal. In 1944, he published an autobiographical

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

of his escape from Europe, serialized from May to August in the Yiddish daily '' Der Keneder Adler'' and published in book form later that year. In 1953, Rabbi Hirschprung re-established Montreal's

Bais Yaakov Bais Yaakov (, also Beis Yaakov, Beit Yaakov, Beth Jacob or Beys Yankev; ) is a genericized name for full-time Haredi Jewish elementary and secondary schools for girls worldwide. Bais Yaakov, started by Sarah Schenirer in post-World War I K ...

school for girls, which was renamed Bais Yaakov d'Rav Hirschprung in his honour after his death. He was named rosh yeshiva of Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch in 1965, and in 1969 succeeded Sheea Herschorn as Chief Rabbi of Montreal. Rabbi Hirschprung died on 25 January 1998. His wife, Alta Chaya Hirschprung, died on 4 March 2012. They are both buried in the Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery in Montreal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirschprung, Pinchas 1912 births 1998 deaths Rabbis from Montreal Polish emigrants to Canada Polish Hasidic rabbis Canadian Hasidic rabbis Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent People from Dukla Rosh yeshivas Jews from Quebec Canadian Haredi rabbis Canadian Orthodox rabbis Hasidic poskim