Knesseth HaRabbanim HaOrthodoxim BeAmerica - Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of America. Parts I and II. Edited by Yitzchak Leib Epstein. Text in Hebrew, Yiddish and English.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Dov Aryeh Zitwer

New York

1922-24

FIRST EDITiON. Portrait of Gavriel Zev Margolioth, president of the organization. With stamp of former owner R. Abraham Isaac Kook on p. 12 of Part II and Eliezer Sirkis on the title-page.

Goldman, 1178 and 1180.

This rabbinic organization was founded in 1920 by Gavriel Zev Margolioth (”Reb Velvele”) as a rival body to the well established Agudath HaRabbanim, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada. The documents and proceedings here indicate that Prohibition was the impetus for the establishment of the new assembly. Only an official organization sanctioned by the Prohibition Commissioner of the Treasury Department was permitted to designate Rabbis to procure and sell wine for sacramental purposes. It seems that the Agudath HaRabbanim was withholding sale permits from certain dissident Rabbis, who in turn set out to form their own organization. Hence, the Knesseth HaRabbanim.