Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld

Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, also spelled Zonnenfeld (1 December 1848 – 26 February 1932), was the rabbi and co-founder of the Edah HaChareidis, a Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem, during the years of the British Mandate of Palestine. He was originally given the name "Chaim"; however, the name "Yosef" was added to him while he experienced an illness. Sonnenfeld was born in Verbó in the Austrian Empire. His father, Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zonnenfeld, died when Chaim was five years old.

Sonnenfeld was a student of Rabbi Samuel Benjamin Sofer (the ''Ksav Sofer''), the son of Rabbi Moses Sofer (the ''Chasam Sofer''). He was also a student of Rabbi Avraham Schag in Kobersdorf (who was himself a disciple of the Chasam Sofer); Sonnenfeld moved from the latter city to Jerusalem in 1873.

Sonnenfeld became an important figure in Jerusalem's Old City, serving as the right-hand man of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin and assisting the latter in communal activities, such as the founding of schools and the Diskin Orphanage, and the fight against secularism. In 1898, Sonnenfeld refused to meet with Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, who visited the Old City, because he believed that the Emperor was a descendant of the nation of Amalek. Sonnenfeld sent a delegate, a former Dutch diplomat and writer who had become a ''baal teshuva'', Dr. Jacob Israël de Haan, to Transjordan with a peace proposal for Emir Abdullah.

Sonnenfeld had a complicated relationship with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, since the two were vigorous opponents in many areas. Yet, prior to Rav Kook coming to Jerusalem, there does not seem to have been any tension, and in 1913, the two traveled together to the Galilee to try to return secular Jewish pioneers to Torah Judaism.

Works

Sonnenfeld wrote scholarly commentaries on the Torah, Talmud, and ''Shulchan Aruch''. His responsa are collected in the work ''Salmas Chaim''.

References

* Sonnenfeld, Shlomo Zalman. 1983. ''Guardian of Jerusalem: The Life and Times of Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (Artscroll History Series)''. Adapted from ''Ha-Ish Al Ha-Homah'' (3 vols.), by Hillel Danzinger. Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications.
* Sonnenfeld, Shlomo Zalman, ed. 2002. ''Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld on the Parashah''. Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications, 2002.

Gallery

Rabbi Yoseph Chaïm Sonnenfeld (1849-1932).gif, 1
Rabbis at High Commissioner's Reception, Jerusalem 1920.jpg, 2 - 1920
Sonnenfeld-Masaryk.jpg, 3 - 1927
Kook and Sonnenfeld.jpg, 4 - 1930s
Rabbi Shag Grave.JPG, Sonnenfeld grave at the Mount of Olives Cemetery

# Yoseph Chaïm Sonnenfeld during the years of the British mandate.
# British High Commissioner's reception at Government House, Jerusalem, with texts of the Proclamation, 1920. L-R: Rabbis Moshe Leib Bernstein, Yosef Chaïm Sonnenfeld, Yerucham Diskin, and Baruch Reuven Jungreis.
# Yoseph Chaïm Sonnenfeld receives Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, President of Czechoslovakia, during the latter's visit to Jerusalem, 1927.''Guardian of Jerusalem'', pp. 182-183.
# Yosef Chaïm Sonnenfeld (left) with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, 1930s.

Notes

External links

* (Excerpt from Artscroll biography of Rabbi Sonnenfeld)
The official Diskin Orphanage website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnenfeld, Yosef Chaim
1848 births
1932 deaths
People from Vrbové
Slovak Orthodox rabbis
Austro-Hungarian rabbis
Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the Ottoman Empire
Orthodox rabbis in Mandatory Palestine
Rabbis of the Edah HaChareidis
Chief rabbis of cities
Anti-Zionist Haredi rabbis
19th-century rabbis in Jerusalem
20th-century rabbis in Jerusalem
Mohels
Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives