OLD ANTIQUE HEBREW LETTER SIR HARRY FISCHEL NY WHAT A HONOR LONG LETTER הרי פישל

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Harry Fischel(1865 - 1948) was anAmericanbusinessman andphilanthropistbased inNew York Cityat the turn of the 20th century.

Fischel was one of the leading pioneers in the growth of American Judaism, in general, and in American Jewish Orthodoxy, in particular, particularly in the dynamic precedent-setting first half of the 20th Century.

• 1Biography
• 2Involvement in society
• 3Descendants
• 4Sources
• Yisroel Aaron Fischel (later known as Harry) was born on July 19, 1865, in the small, isolated Russian (NowLithuania) town of Meretz (Merkinė) to poor but pious parents. He became an architect and a builder at 19, emigrated to America virtually penniless at 20 (after giving most of his earnings to his parents who remained in Russia), and earned his first million in real estate at a young age, but sent money home to help support his parents in Russia even before he was earning $10 per week in America.[1]
  Involvement in society[edit]

  Fischel was active in matters concerning Jewish interests in the USA andMandatory Palestine, including support forreligiousinstitutions and facilities such as Jewish schools and colleges, synagogues andkosher foodkitchens, as well as various support for theJewish worldwide community, with a focus on Jewish immigrants to the US and Mandate Palestine.

  It should be noted at the outset that the following list does not mention all of the organizations that Fischel played a role in.

  Among his numerous distinctions were his service as theTreasurerof theHebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), beginning in 1890; a director of theBeth Israel Medical Centerin 1891 (credited with laying the groundwork for its kosher policy up to and including the present); Vice-President of theHebrew Free Loan Societies; Vice President of theBeth Israel Medical Centerin 1900; Vice President of theBeth Hamedrash Hagadolon theLower East Side, until he moved toPark Avenuein 1902; builder of the first modern Jewish theater in 1904 (exclusively for productions inYiddish); charter member of theAmerican Jewish Committeein 1906; prevailed on his co-founders to designate him to chair its second annual luncheon, to assure it and its future events would be kosher; personally prevailed on President Taft to install a kosher kitchen at Ellis Island in 1911, so that Orthodox Jewish immigrants could have the opportunity to eat kosher food during a probation period, thus becoming strong enough to pass the test to avoid deportation; President of theUptown Talmud Torahin Manhattan in 1911 (in one of the first structures in New York built exclusively for this purpose, and then widely considered \"the most important Jewish educational institution in America\"); first Treasurer of theCentral Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War, in 1914; member of the Executive Committee of theJoint Distribution Committeein 1914; organizer of thePalestine Building Loan Associationin 1921; builder of a home, office, yeshiva and synagogue for theChief RabbiofPalestineAbraham Isaac Kookat his own expense in 1923; he established theHarry Fischel Institute for Talmudic Researchin 1931 (which, after the creation of the country of Israel, trained, for many years, a large percentage of the judges who presided over the religious courts in the country); established the Harry Fischel Foundation on January 4, 1932[2](later renamed theHarry & Jane Fischel Foundation).

  Fischel\'s efforts on behalf ofYeshiva Collegeand its predecessor yeshivot can be highlighted as follows: in 1889, Fischel became a director of theEtz Chaim Yeshiva; in 1895, Fischel became the Chair of its Building Committee; in 1915, he became the Chair of the Building Committee of the newly merged Etz Chaim Yeshiva andRabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and a vice-president of the latter; in 1920 he became the Chair of the Building Committee of the institution that would become Yeshiva College; and in 1927 he was the Chair of the Building Committee upon the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone of the main building of the main campus of Yeshiva College inWashington Heights(now known as theWilf Campus). Fischel established theHarry Fischel Graduate School for Higher Jewish StudiesatYeshiva Universityin 1945. The main study hall or bet medrash in the main building of the main campus is known to this day as theHarry Fischel Study Hall. He played a primary role in saving the college from the brink of bankruptcy and closure during the Great Depression. A plaque in the main building of the main campus testifies that Mr. Fischel even served, for a time, as Acting President of Yeshiva College.

  Descendants[edit]

  Fischel had four daughters and no sons who survived into adulthood. One daughter married a physician (Dr. Henry Rafsky), one married a lawyer (State SenatorAlbert Wald), one married a banker (David Kass), and one, married a rabbi (RabbiHerbert S. Goldstein). Fischel openly stated that since he had no sons to bear his name, he had more of a motivation than most people to perpetuate his name by other means, in his case, the institutions named after him, in Israel and in America

  His granddaughterJosephine Reichel, served as national president of theAgudah Women of America; his granddaughterDr. Naomi Cohen, is a professor at theUniversity of Haifa; his grandson Simeon H.F. Goldstein, served as the executive director of the Harry Fischel Foundation; his great-granddaughter, Deborah Stepelman, serves on the Board of the Riverdale Jewish Center; his great-grandson Seth Goldstein became the president of the Etz Chayim Congregation in Queens; his great-grandson Rabbi Hillel Reichel is the Director of theMachon Harry Fischel(the Fischel Institute) in the historic campus and building in theBucharian Quarter, inIsrael.

  Among the prominent spouses married to some of his descendants areHaifaChief RabbiShe\'ar Yashuv Cohen, who briefly served asChief RabbiofIsrael; who also heads theFischel Instituteand theAriel Institutes, and who previously served as Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem; andRabbi Dr. O. Asher Reichel, who served as Rabbi of theWest Side Institutional Synagogueand wrote a major biography on the historian and diplomat, RabbiYitzchak Isaac Halevy, based in part on his thesis when he was awarded the first M.H.L. degree ever issued by the Harry Fischel Graduate School, before he met – and married – Rabbi Goldstein’s daughter, Josephine.

  Sources[edit]
  • Goldstein, Herbert S., Fischel, Harry, Reichel, Aaron I., HARRY FISCHEL—Pioneer of Jewish Philanthropy—Forty Years of Struggle for a Principle and the Yeares Beyond (Augmented Edition) (Jersey City, New Jersey: Ktav), 2012
  • Goldstein, Herbert S., Forty Years of Struggle for a Principle (New York: Bloch Publishers), 1928
  • Levine, Yitchak,Harry Fischel: Orthodox Jewish Philanthropist Par Excellence, Glimpses Into American Jewish History, jewishpress.com
  • Reichel, Aaron I., The Maverick Rabbi (Norfolk: Donning Publishers) 1984, 1986
  • Reichel, Aaron I., “Pioneers of American Orthodoxy: Mr. Harry Fischel and Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein,” pp.114–117, in My Yeshiva College: 75 Years of Memories, ed. Menachem Butler and Ze

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