Harry Fischel

Yisroel Aaron Fischel (later known as Harry) was born on July 19, 1865, in the small, isolated Russian (Now Lithuania) town of Meretz (Merkinė) to poor parents who were pious Jews.

Among his numerous distinctions were his service as the treasurer of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), beginning in 1890; a director of the Beth Israel Medical Center in 1891 (credited with laying the groundwork for its kosher policy up to and including the present); vice-president of the Hebrew Free Loan Societies; Vice President of the Beth Israel Medical Center in 1900; vice president of the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol on the Lower East Side, until he moved to Park Avenue in 1902; builder of the first modern Jewish theater in 1904 (exclusively for productions in Yiddish); charter member of the American Jewish Committee in 1906; prevailed on his co-founders to designate him to chair its second annual luncheon, to assure it and its future events would be kosher; personally prevailed on President Taft to install a kosher kitchen at Ellis Island in 1911, so that Orthodox Jewish immigrants could have the opportunity to eat kosher food during a probation period, thus becoming strong enough to pass the test to avoid deportation; president of the Uptown Talmud Torah in Manhattan in 1911 (in one of the first structures in New York built exclusively for this purpose, and then widely considered "the most important Jewish educational institution in America"); first treasurer of the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War, in 1914; member of the executive committee of the Joint Distribution Committee in 1914; organizer of the Palestine Building Loan Association in 1921; builder of a home, office, yeshiva and synagogue for the Chief Rabbi of Palestine Abraham Isaac Kook at his own expense in 1923; he established the Harry Fischel Institute for Talmudic Research in 1931 (which, after the creation of the country of Israel, trained, for many years, a large percentage of the judges who presided over the religious courts in the country); established the Harry Fischel Foundation on January 4, 1932[3] (later renamed the Harry & Jane Fischel Foundation).

Fischel was also a long-time member of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on Manhattan's Upper East Side, in which he had various roles and served as a trustee.

[5] His granddaughter Josephine Reichel, served as national president of the Agudah Women of America; his granddaughter Dr. Naomi Cohen, is a professor at the University of Haifa; his grandson Simeon H.F. Goldstein, served as the executive director of the Harry Fischel Foundation; his great-granddaughter, Deborah Stepelman, serves on the board of the Riverdale Jewish Center; his great-grandson Seth Goldstein became the president of the Etz Chayim Congregation in Queens; his great-grandson Rabbi Hillel Reichel is the director of the Machon Harry Fischel (the Fischel Institute) in the historic campus and building in the Bucharian Quarter, in Israel.

degree ever issued by the Harry Fischel Graduate School, before he met – and married – Rabbi Goldstein's daughter, Josephine.