Joseph Rabinowitz (23 September 1837 – 17 May 1899) was a Russian missionary to the Jews, who founded the Hebrew Christian movement Novy Israel in 1882.

[2] He was brought up as a Ḥasid[citation needed], but later acquired some secular knowledge and mastered the Russian language.

For a time he practised law in the lower courts of his native town, settling subsequently in Kishinev.

In 1882 he founded the movement Novy Israel, and began to preach Christianity to the Jews of Kishinev.

Following immediately upon the founding of the Bibleitzy brotherhood by Jacob Gordin at Elizabethgrad, the new movement attracted much attention, and was freely discussed in Russian newspapers.