Risikoff, Menahem

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RISIKOFF, MENAHEM

RISIKOFF, MENAHEM (Mendel ) HAKOHEN (1866–1960), rabbi and author. Risikoff, the son of Rabbi Zvi Yosef Hakohen *Resnick, was born in Zhetel (Dyatlovo) and studied in the yeshivot of Volozhin and Vilna, receiving semikhah at the age of 17 from some of the outstanding rabbis of the time.

Appointed rabbi of Kazan in 1895, he emigrated to the United States a few years later following pogroms in his community and served as rabbi in a number of Brooklyn synagogues, including Ohev Shalom and Williamsburg's Moore Street Congregation.

Among the many volumes published by him on halakhah, aggadah, biblical commentaries, sermons, and responsa may be mentioned: Shaarei Zevaḥ (1913), dealing with the laws of sheḥitah and treifah; Shaarei Shamayim (1937), a commentary on the Shulḥan Arukh; and Torat ha-Kohanim (1948), an exhaustive study of the laws pertaining to Kohanim.

bibliography:

B. Ayalon (ed.), Yizkor Book Meitshet (1973), 119–20; S. Gottlieb, Ohelei Shem (1912).