Yitzchaki, J

Rabbi Ya'akov Yitzchaki (1846 Derbent -1917 Jerusalem) was a prominent communal leader of the Mountain Jews. From 1868, he served as the Chief Rabbi of Derbent and Dagestan. He established a yeshivah in Derbent, wrote several religious and historical compositions in Hebrew, and an article in Russian about the history of Mountain Jews for the Ministry of Interior. He studied Judeo-Spanish poetry from the Golden Age, the Judeo-Tati/Juhuri language, and took part in the activities of the Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia (OPE), founded in St. Petersburg in 1863. His best-known book is Ohalei Ya'akov. In 1878, when many Jews were arrested in Kuba following a blood libel, Rabbi Ya'akov Yitzchaki turned to well-known Jews in the Russian capital to help the defendants. In the early 1880s, he supported the “Hovevei Zion” movement, and in 1907 immigrated to Jerusalem. Along with a group of Mountain Jews from Daghestan and others, he established an agricultural settlement which became the town of Be’er Ya‘akov. The town was named in his honor after his death. Rabbi Ya'akov Yitzchaki died during WWI in 1917. Various facets and phases of Rabbi Ya'akov Yitzchaki's activities are reflected in his private collection. An important part of the collection is Yitzchaki’s extensive correspondence with Jewish public figures and Jewish institutions in Tsarist Russia and Europe regarding public activities and research. The collection also includes: Yitzchaki’s personal documents; materials regarding his communal activities as a rabbi; papers on the aid he provided to Persian and Mountain Jews; records related to the history of the Mountain Jews; the rabbi’s works; materials regarding Ya'kov's father's activities as a rabbi in Derbent, etc. -- اقرأ أكثر