Deutsch, Judah Joel

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DEUTSCH, JUDAH JOEL

DEUTSCH, JUDAH JOEL (c. 1870–1918), rabbi. He was a devoted disciple of Jekuthiel Judah *Teitelbaum, rabbi of Sighet (Máramarossziget). At the age of 20 he was appointed rabbi of Ganya in Máramaros. Invitations were extended to him to become rabbi of many Hungarian and Polish communities, but his invariable reply was: "Here I acquired my knowledge and here I wish to dispense it." He wrote important works on the Talmud, as well as many responsa, but almost all his writings were lost during World War i.

His son, moses deutsch (1887–1944), succeeded him as rabbi. Endowed with an outstanding memory and a keen mind, he was an expert in Jewish monetary law, and was particularly conversant with the responsa of Moses Sofer (Schreiber), which he quoted freely. He perished in Auschwitz.

bibliography:

P.Z. Schwartz, Shem ha-Gedolim me-Ereẓ Hagar, 1 (1914), 54b; O.Z. Rand, Toledot Anshei Shem (1950), 25; J.J. Greenwald, Maẓẓevet Kodesh (1952), 27.

[Naphtali Ben-Menahem]