In 1925, the highest-paid chazzan in the world filed for bankruptcy
Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz and Chazzan Yossele Rosenblatt, two legendary figures in early 20th-century American Jewish life, banded together in 1923 with several others to found a newspaper called Dos Yiddishe Licht or the Light of Israel. The goal of the venture was to spread Torah values and challenge the dominant secular Yiddish press, which often espoused views antithetical to Jewish tradition. To finance the project, the renowned chazzan put up $25,000 of his own money, and Rav Shraga Feivel added $10,000, which he borrowed from friends.
The weekly — later daily — was published in English and Yiddish and included news, inspiration, and a no-holds-barred opinion page. Regular contributors included founding American Agudists as Rabbis Leo Jung and Herbert Goldstein, but the most notable columns were penned by Rav Shraga Feivel himself. Under the name “Shraga Feivish Mendlowitz” (and other pseudonyms) he published seething animadversion on kashrus, Shabbos observance, and the hypocrisy of rival Yiddish newspapers.
While Yossele Rosenblatt took no official role in newspaper operations, as a general partner, he carried liability when the paper subsequently fell into debt. Thus in 1925, having exhausted all other options, the highest-paid chazzan in the world filed for bankruptcy. Two years later, the newspaper ceased publication.
While bankruptcy ostensibly absolved him of liability, Yossele vowed to pay back his debtors down to the last penny, and immediately planned a yearlong European concert tour to earn the funds. He followed that up with a South American concert tour and climbed slowly back to solvency. Then in 1929, the stock market crash cost him his cantorial position at Boro Park’s Anshe Sfard. By 1930, federal judge Julian Mack (a leading American Zionist for whom Kibbutz Ramat Hashofet is named) discharged Yossele from bankruptcy, yet the chazzan nevertheless spent another $50,000 in personal funds to pay back debts he didn’t legally owe.
Create a free account to keep reading.
