José Faur

José Faur (Hebrew: חכם יוסף פאור הלוי Ḥāḵām Yōsēf Fawr Hallēwī; 1934 – June 9, 2020) was a Sephardic Hakham (rabbi), teacher and scholar.

[1] José Faur was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and belonged to the Damascene Syrian Jewish community of that city.

Before one began to study the Talmud, it was expected of him to have a solid knowledge of the scripture, Mishnayot, the famous anthology Eyn Yaaqov, the Shulhan Arukh and other basic Jewish texts.

My years in Lakewood were pleasurable and profitable.... At the same time the lessons of Rabbi Kotler and my contacts with fellow students were making me aware of some basic methodological flaws in their approach.

in Semitic Languages; the title of his master's thesis was "La Espiritualidad Judia," a basic explanation of Jewish spirituality.

[1] In 1963, Faur received his Semicha (contemporary rabbinic ordination) from hakham Suleiman Haggai Abadi, head of the Beth Din (Jewish court) of Jerusalem.

"[1] Later that year he left Spain to participate in a three-year fellowship at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, under the supervision of the eminent professor of Talmud, Saul Lieberman.

During this time, he brought many people back to halakhic observance and created a renaissance in the learning of Tora in accordance with the Sephardic traditions.

Ralph Betesh, later one of the leaders of the Jewish community, recounts how for the first time, people heard of great Sephardic luminaries such as Don Isaac Abarbanel, R. Bachya ibn Pakuda and R. Moshe Hefez.

In the biography of Nouri Dayyan entitled, 'Nouri: The Story of Isidore Dayan', by Devorah Glicksman (2016), a character by the name of Kohelet Ovadia, may have been intended to represent Rabbi Faur during this period.

Rabbi Faur later sued for breach of contract, arguing that by admitting women in such a manner, the seminary was in effect forcing him to resign.

These allegations were later formulated in a letter, and in an ad in the Haredi weekly, Yated Neeman on February 8, 1988, in protest of his appointment as rabbi to the Syrian Congregation Shaare Zion in New York City.

[3] Faur wrote nine books and over 100 essays and articles on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from linguistics to historiography to rabbinic law.