Joseph Günzburg (Osip Gavrilovich Gintsburg, Осип Гаврилович Гинцбург (or ''Iosif-Evzel'', ''Иосиф-Евзель''); 1812 in
Vitebsk
Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk (, ; , ; ) is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has 358,927 inhabitants, m ...
– 12 January 1878 in Paris) was a Russian financier and philanthropist who became a baron in 1874. He was the son of Gabriel Günzburg and the father of
Horace Günzburg
Horace Osipovich (Naftali-Gerts) Günzburg (; 8 February 1833 – 2 March 1909), 2nd Baron Günzburg, was a Russian philanthropist.
Rise to prominence
He was born in Zvenigorodka. Günzburg received his education at home in Zvenigorodka. After ...
.
Having acquired great wealth during the
Crimean War
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
, Günzburg established a banking firm at
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
. There he began to labor on behalf of the welfare of the
Jewish community
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
. In November 1861, he was appointed by the Russian government as a member of the
rabbinical
Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...
commission, the meetings of which lasted five months. He exerted himself to raise the standard of the education of the Jews. To this effect, he founded the
{{R from other capitalisation ...
in 1863 with the permission of the Russian government, and he served of as president of the Society till his death. Owing to Günzburg's efforts, the regulations concerning the military service of the Jews were in 1874 made identical with those of the peoples of other creeds. He also instituted a fund for the
, his father's native town. The Günzburgs were