Rabbi Israel Porath (1887-1974), spiritual leader and scholar, was a leader among Orthodox rabbis in Cleveland, Ohio, for nearly five decades. Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, Porath received a traditional Talmudic education, graduating from Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He became a disciple of Rabbi Abraham Kook, chief rabbi of Palestine, who ordained him. Porath was active in Palestine as an educator and administrator of relief efforts for Jewish refugees following World War I. In 1922, he immigrated to the United States, accepting a job with the United Charity Institution in New York City. From 1923 to 1925 he occupied the pulpit at Congregation B'nai Israel in Plainfield, New Jersey. He then accepted the post of rabbi of a Cleveland congregation, Oheb Zedek, a position he held for fourteen years. He next served six years as rabbi of another Cleveland congregation, N'vai Zedek. In 1945 he accepted the position of dean of the Salanter Yeshiva in New York City. Within a year, however, he returned to Cleveland to become rabbi of the Heights Jewish Center, where he remained until his retirement in 1972. Porath was active in the Cleveland Jewish community as founder and chairman of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council and served on the boards of the Bureau of Jewish Education, the Jewish Welfare Federation, the Jewish Community Council, and the B'nai B'rith. Rabbi Porath's major scholarly contribution was his Mavo Ha-Talmud (Outline of the Talmud), a systematic guide to the discussion and decisions of Talmudic law, published in seven volumes from 1941 to 1960.
Rabbi Israel Porath Papers, Series II, 1910-1974, consist of correspondence, newspaper clippings, personal records such as a naturalization application and a Brazilian visa, talks and sermons, as well as copyrights and notes for Mavo Ha-Talmud. Additionally, there are correspondence, newspaper clippings, and sermons of Samuel Isaac Porath, Rabbi Israel Porath's eldest son.
This collection is of value to researchers studying the role of Orthodox rabbis in the American Jewish community and, in particular, in the Jewish community of Cleveland, Ohio. Researchers studying Jewish history of Palestine may find value in Rabbi Porath's correspondence in 1919 concerning refugee Bukharian and Georgian Jews.
The collection is arranged alphabetically by type of document. The majority of the collection is in Hebrew.
The researchers should also consult MS 4526 Rabbi Israel Porath Papers and MS 4757 Heights Jewish Center Records.
Processed by Louis Rosenblum in 1997
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[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4753 Rabbi Israel Porath Papers, Series II, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Hannah Porath, 1995
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.