Yosef (Joseph) Babad (1905 – August 30, 1997) was an American rabbi and scholar. A prominent member of the Chicago Jewish community, he was a professor of Bible and Jewish Literature at

Hebrew Theological College The Hebrew Theological College, known colloquially as "Skokie Yeshiva" or HTC, is a yeshiva in Skokie, Illinois. Although the school's primary focus is the teaching of Torah and Jewish tradition, it is also a private university that is part of t ...

in Skokie, Illinois, where he was also the dean of students and dean of the graduate school for 40 years. He wrote an authoritative book on the history of the Jews in Medieval Carinthia in Austria.

Biography

Babad was born in 1905 in

Lubaczów Lubaczów ( uk, Любачів ''Liubachiv'') is a town in southeastern Poland, close to the border with Ukraine, with 12,567 inhabitants Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999), it is the capital of Lubaczów County and is locate ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. He was the scion of a rabbinic family tracing lineage to the 11th century and a direct descendant of the famed author of the ''

Minchat Chinuch Joseph ben Moses Babad (1801 in Przeworsk – 1874 in Ternopil) was a rabbi, ''posek'' and Talmudist, best known for his work, the ''Minchat Chinuch'', a commentary on the '' Sefer Hachinuch''. Babad served as rabbi at Bohorodczany, Zbarizh, ...

'', after whom he was named. Rabbi Babad received a

doctorate of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

in 1933, and

rabbinic ordination Semikhah ( he, סמיכה) is the traditional Jewish name for rabbinic ordination. The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 C ...

from the Rabbinical Seminary of Vienna in 1934. He served as a district rabbi of the

Carinthian Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carint ...

Jewish community of

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

, in the

Austrian Alps The Central Eastern Alps (german: Zentralalpen or Zentrale Ostalpen), also referred to as Austrian Central Alps (german: Österreichische Zentralalpen) or just Central Alps, comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps in Austria and the adjacent ...

. In 1939, Babad moved to the Netherlands, where he worked with the

Vaad Hatzalah Vaad Hatzalah (the Rescue Committee or Committee for Rescuing) was an organization to rescue Jews in Europe from the Holocaust, which was founded in November 1939 by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada (''Agudath Harabba ...

facilitating Jews in their escape from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. During the 1940s, Babad served as a congregational rabbi in Tarentum, PA and

Washington, Pa Washington is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Pennsylvania. A part of the Greater Pittsburgh area in the southwestern part of the state, the city is home to Washington & Jefferson College and PONY Baseball and Softball, Pony L ...

. He attended the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

, earning a master's degree in English literature in 1943. He joined the

in 1944, serving as a professor of Bible and

Hebrew literature Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews. Hebrew literature was pro ...

, and as dean of students and Graduate School Dean for 40 years. He retired in 1984, and at the age of 70, moved to Israel. According to his student, Rabbi Stewart Weiss, he said he is making an

aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...

because:

I can no longer watch from afar as our brothers in Israel daily risk their lives for our future, and not be a part of them, and so, I am fulfilling what must be the destiny of every Jew."

Babad died in Jerusalem on August 30, 1997.

Works

Babad authored various articles in scholarly publications on

Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcile ...

and history in Hebrew, German and English. He also published an authoritative work on the history of Jews in medieval

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

and on

Averroes Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psycholog ...

, a contemporary of

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...

. He provided testimony on pre-

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 ...

Austrian Jewry for

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, and published a study on "

Halacha ''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 ...

and

Aggadah Aggadah ( he, ''ʾAggāḏā'' or ''Haggāḏā''; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַגָּדְתָא ''ʾAggāḏəṯāʾ''; "tales, fairytale, lore") is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, ...

in he

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

." His articles include: * “The Jews in Medieval Carinthia. A contribution to the history of the Jews in the Alpine countries of Europe", ''Historia Judaica'' Vol VII, No 1, April 1945. * "אבן רשד בן דורו של הרמב"ם","Ibn Rushd ben Doro Shel Harambam", ''Jubilee book in honor of Samuel K. Mirsky'', New York, 1959, pp. 43–74. * "המעמדים בקארינטיה של אוסטריה דורשים כניסת היהודים לטובת ארצם","The Estates in the Carinthian Province of Austria Request Readmission of Jews in 1783 for Economic Reasons", in ''Hagut Ivrit Ba'Amerika, Studies on Jewish Themes by Contemporary American Scholars'', Edited by Dr. Menahem Zohori, Prof. Arie Tartakover, Dr. Haim Ormian, Published by Brit-Ivrit Olamit, Volume III, 1974, pp. 101–112

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babad, Yosef 1905 births 1997 deaths 20th-century Polish rabbis 20th-century American rabbis he:יוסף באב"ד yi:יוסף באב"ד