Yitzhak Isaac Halevy (Rabinowitz) (; September 21, 1847 – May 15, 1914) was a rabbi, Jewish historian, and founder of the Agudath Israel organization. Relatively little of his correspondence survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, and so information concerning his activities is scarce. A somewhat hagiographical treatment based on discovered correspondence of Isaac Halevy is to be found in , and this forms the basis for the present article.

Biographical information

Isaac Halevy was born in Iwieniec (now in Minsk Region,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

), near

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

into a rabbinical family. He was a grandson of Mordechai Eliezer Kovno. After his father was killed by soldiers, he was raised by his paternal grandfather. At 13, he entered the Volozhin yeshiva, where he was recognized as a

talmudic 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 modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

prodigy. He held a number of communal positions in his early adulthood, including

gabbai A ''gabbai'' (), sometimes spelled ''gabay'', also known as ''shamash'' (, sometimes transcribed ''shamas'') or warden ( UK, similar to churchwarden), is a beadle or sexton, a person who assists in the running of synagogue services in some w ...

of the aforementioned Volozhin Yeshiva. Halevy was influential in having R. Chaim Soloveichik appointed to head the yeshiva, and he hosted the latter in his own house for months at a time. Although Halevy is best known for his classic work ''Dorot Harishonim'', rebutting many of the mainstream historical accounts of Jewish history, he was also most influential behind the scenes in uniting the leading rabbis of the West and of the East in forming the Agudath Israel world movement, as described by Reichel. Isaac Halevy died in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

in 1914 from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

suffered three weeks earlier.

Works

Isaac Halevy's major work was the ''Dorot Harishonim'' (), a six-volume religiously-oriented review of Jewish history, covering the span from the end of the Mishnaic period to the end of the

geonic ''Geonim'' (; ; also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura Academy , Sura and Pumbedita Academy , Pumbedita, in t ...

period. It is largely concerned with rebutting the accounts given by Jewish historians such as Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport,

Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was a German exegete and one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (no ...

Isaac Hirsch Weiss Isaac (Isaak) Hirsch Weiss, also Eisik Hirsch Weiss () (9 February 1815 – 1 June 1905), was an Jews of Austria, Austrian Talmudist and historian of literature born at Velké Meziříčí, Groß Meseritsch, Habsburg Moravia. After having recei ...

(author of ''Dor Dor ve-Doreshav''), and the like. These works later formed the basis for Rabbi Avigdor Miller's writings on history, and more recently is heavily quoted and referenced in ''Codex Judaica: Chronological Index of Jewish History'' by Mattis Kantor.

References

* Belarusian Haredi rabbis Russian Haredi rabbis 1847 births 1914 deaths Levites Volozhin Yeshiva alumni {{Europe-rabbi-stub