Rabbi Bernard Louis Levinthal (Hebrew: הרב דוב אריה בן הרב אברהם הכהן לבינטל; May 12, 1864 – September 23, 1952), the "Dean of U.S. Rabbis,"[1] built Philadelphia's first Eastern European Orthodox Jewish community from his arrival in the United States in 1891 until his death in 1952.

Levinthal was born on the festival of Lag BaOmer in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania to a prominent, 17-generation rabbinical family.

[2] In 1888, he received semicha (rabbinic ordination) from rabbis Isaac Elchanan Spektor and Samuel Mohilever.

In the early 1900s, Rabbi Levinthal helped organize a central kosher supervision committee across eighteen Philadelphia synagogues.

[2][9] While there, he advocated for successful resolutions supporting religious freedom and Jewish civil rights of Jews in Europe.

After Levinthal's Versailles Peace Conference trip, he publicly expressed support for the British Mandate of Palestine, and a wish to move there and help construct a new Jewish state there should one be established.

[2] Levinthal criticized the Jewish Theological Seminary for requiring its students to attain a secular college degree.