STERN, JOSEPH

STERN, JOSEPH (1803–1858), Hungarian rabbi. Stern was the son-in-law of menahem stern . He studied with Ḥayyim of Kosov in the home of his father Menahem Mendel of Kosov. Stern claimed that he had studied the Shulḥan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah, 140 times and the other sections of the Shulḥan Arukh 111 times. He was ordained rabbi by the scholars Abraham David Wahrmann, rabbi of Buchach, and Nathan Nata Mueler, rabbi of Podgaytsy, and was first appointed rosh bet din ("head of the bet din") and then av bet din of Sighet. A bitter quarrel broke out in Sighet, as some of the community wanted to appoint in his stead Eleazar Nissin Teitelbaum, son of Moses Teitelbaum. Stern, who hated contention and strife, wanted to divide the rabbinic post, with Teitelbaum as rabbi and himself as head of the bet din. Nevertheless, this did not stop the dispute. Troublemakers accused Stern of attacking the government in his sermons, and he was imprisoned. Nearly all the inhabitants of the town condemned this step, and the government authorities were also convinced of his complete innocence. On the third day of his imprisonment the district officer, together with high government officials, entered the prison and asked forgiveness of the rabbi for the unpleasantness caused him and assured him that the transgressors would be severely punished. After six years of dissension and quarreling Teitelbaum left the town. The only one who supported Stern during difficult times was Jekuthiel Asher Zalman Ansel Zusmir, rabbi of Styria. Of Stern's writings only his introduction to his father-in-law's Derekh Emunah (vol. 1, 1856) and one responsum (no. 50) in the She'elot u-Teshuvot (1882, 48a–49a) of Zusmir are known. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.J.(L.) Greenwald (Grunwald), Zikkaron la-Rishonim (1909), 26–28; idem, Maẓẓevat Kodesh (1952), 28–38; N. Ben-Menahem, Mi-Sifrut Yisrael be-Ungaryah (1958), 94–99. (Naphtali Ben-Menahem) STERN, JOSEPH ZECHARIAH STERN, JOSEPH ZECHARIAH (1831–1903), Lithuanian rabbi and talmudist. Stern was born in Neustadt-Shirwint (Woldislovava) in the Suwalki district of Russia to a family which had produced many generations of rabbis. He married the daughter of mordecai gimpel jaffe and at the age of 20 was appointed rabbi of Jasenovko, Grodno district, where he remained for ten years. He was subsequently appointed rabbi of Shavli, Lithuania, which post he retained until his death. With his phenomenal memory, he mastered ancient and modern Hebrew literature and also interested himself in various branches of Jewish and general knowledge. He published articles on halakhah and topical matters (mainly in Ha-Levanon), some of them polemics against moses leib lilienblum who advocated religious reform (1869–70). The poet judah leib gordon , during his stay in Shavli as a teacher, came to know Stern and regarded him as a symbol of religious fanaticism and inflexibility, portraying him in his poem Koẓo shel Yod (in the character Vafsi Hakuzari – a name made by a transposition of the letters of Joseph Zechariah) as a fanatical rabbi with "the soul of a Tatar." This assessment of Stern was severely criticized by those who knew him. Many claimed that he was indeed one of the lenient rabbis, even though he was of a resolute mind and a nonconformist. He displayed a positive attitude toward the Ḥibbat Zion movement and settlement in Ereẓ Israel, but it was expressed only in his letters and writings, and not in actual activity. He wrote responsa and corresponded on halakhic topics with rabbis in many countries. He was the author of Zekher Yehosef (1860), novellae on the Talmud; Zekher Yehosef (1899–1902), responsa on the Shulḥan Arukh in four parts; commentaries on the five scrolls (Song of Songs, 1875; Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, 1876); the Passover Haggadah (1898); and Tahalukhot ha-Aggadot (1902), on the aggadah (appended to Zekher Yehosef, pt. 4). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sefer ha-Yaḥas, in J.Z. Stern, Zekher Yehosef (Responsa), 1 (1899); Z.A. Rabiner, Ha-Rav Yosef Zekharyah Stern (1943); B. Jaffe, in: Yavneh, 3 (1942), 153–60; G. Katzenelson, Ha-Milḥamah ha-Sifrutit bein ha-Ḥasidim ve-ha-Maskilim (1954), 103ff.; Yahadut Lita, 3 (1967), 97. (Benjamin Jaffe)