Sheea Halevy Herschorn (; 1893, Krilovitz – 15 May 1969,

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

-born

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

communal leader and ''

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

'', who served as

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi ( he, רב ראשי ''Rav Rashi'') 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 ...

from 1951 until 1961.

Biography

Sheea Herschorn was born in Krilovitz,

Podolia Podolia or Podilia ( uk, Поділля, Podillia, ; russian: Подолье, Podolye; ro, Podolia; pl, Podole; german: Podolien; be, Падолле, Padollie; lt, Podolė), is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central ...

to a distinguished rabbinic family, the son of Zissel (née Weitman) and Rabbi Sender Herschorn. He received his main rabbinic training from his father, later studying at the

University of Odessa Odesa I. I. Mechnykov National University ( uk, Одеський національний університет Iмені І. І. Мечникова, translit=Odeskyi natsionalnyi universytet imeni I. I. Mechnykova), located in Odesa, Ukraine, i ...

and various ''

yeshivot A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish education, Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish p ...

'' across Lithuania and Poland. Among his teachers were Rabbis Moshe Nathan Rubinstein (''

av beit din The ''av beit din'' ( ''ʾabh bêth dîn'', "chief of the court" or "chief justice"), also spelled ''av beis din'' or ''abh beth din'' and abbreviated ABD (), was the second-highest-ranking member of the Sanhedrin during the Second Temple period, ...

'' of

Vinnitsa Vinnytsia ( ; uk, Вінниця, ; yi, װיניצע) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast and the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. A ...

), Leib Braude (''av beit din'' of

Lemberg Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

), and . He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

at the age of 19, and went on to serve on the rabbinical council of his hometown. Herschorn fled to

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

in 1919, amid the wave of anti-Jewish massacres that began in Ukraine after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He emigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, in the summer of 1921, where he had relatives, and occupied the pulpit at Temple Solomon. From March 1926 he also served as rabbi of Congregation Beth David, and soon concurrently at Congregation Beth Yitzchak. Herschorn was a founding member of the Montreal Jewish Community Council (''Va’ad ha-‘Ir''), inaugurated in late 1922, and its Orthodox Rabbinical Council (''Va’ad ha-Rabbanim''). A schism within the group led him,

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg, and a group of '' shoḥtim'' to secede from the Council and form the United Synagogue in February 1923. The two organizations re-merged in December 1925, and Herschorn ultimately became the rabbinate's vice president in 1936. Herschorn was appointed president of the Rabbinical Council in 1951, succeeding Hirsch Cohen as Chief Rabbi of Montreal. In 1959, Herschorn published his most celebrated work, ''Mi-Ma’ayanei Yeshua'' ( 'Wellsprings of Salvation'), a collection of ''

responsa ''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars i ...

'' to

Halakhic ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

queries, prefaced by a '' haskama'' from the late Rabbi

Chaim Ozer Grodzinski Chaim Ozer Grodzinski ( he, חיים עוזר גראדזענסקי; August 24, 1863 – August 9, 1940) was a ''Av beis din'' (rabbinical chief justice), '' posek'' (halakhic authority), and Talmudic scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania in the late 19 ...

. He died on 15 May 1969 (28

Iyar Iyar ( he, אִייָר or , Standard ''ʾĪyyar'' Tiberian ''ʾĪyyār''; from akk, 𒌗 𒄞 itiayari " rosette; blossom") is the eighth month of the civil year (which starts on 1 Tishrei) and the second month of the Jewish religious year (w ...

5729), and was buried in an '' ohel'' at the Kehal Israel Memorial Park in

Dollard-des-Ormeaux Dollard-des-Ormeaux (; commonly referred to as D.D.O. or simply Dollard) is a predominantly English-speaking suburb of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Island of Montreal. The town was named after French martyr Adam ...

Personal life

Sheea Herschorn married Molly (Malca) Surkes on 7 July 1922. They had one son, Michael Julius (Meshulam Jehuda), a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Department of Mathematics Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

from 1958 until his retirement in 1998. Herschorn's father, sister Sarah, and her husband and son were murdered in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

in 1941.

Partial bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herschorn, Sheea 1893 births 1969 deaths 20th-century Jewish theologians 20th-century Russian rabbis Authors of books on Jewish law Canadian Orthodox rabbis Canadian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Chief rabbis of cities Clergy from Montreal 20th-century Canadian rabbis Jews from Quebec Odesa University alumni People from Ushitsky Uyezd Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Canada Russian refugees Ukrainian Orthodox rabbis