Rabbi and Charedi Council of Jerusalem co-founder (1848–1932)
Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, also spelled Zonnenfeld (1 December 1848 – 26 February 1932), was the
rabbi and co-founder of the
Edah HaChareidis, a
Haredi Jewish community in
Jerusalem, during the years of the
British Mandate of Palestine. Sonnenfeld was born in
Verbó in the
Austrian Empire. His father, Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zonnenfeld, died when Chaim was five years old.
Sonnenfeld was the right-hand man of
Yehoshua Leib Diskin and assisted the latter in communal activities, such as the founding of schools and the
Diskin Orphanage, and fighting against secularism.
Sonnenfeld and
Abraham Isaac Kook were vigorous opponents in many areas. However, notwithstanding their disagreements, the two rabbis enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect and friendship.[1]
Works
Sonnenfeld wrote scholarly commentaries on the
Torah,
Talmud, and Shulchan Aruch. His
responsa are collected in the work Salmas Chaim.
References
Sonnenfeld, Shlomo Zalman. 1983. Guardian of Jerusalem: The Life and Times of Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (Artscroll History Series). Adapted from Ha-Ish Al Ha-Homah (3 vols.), by Hillel Danzinger. Brooklyn, New York:
Mesorah Publications.
ISBN0-89906-458-2
Sonnenfeld, Shlomo Zalman, ed. 2002. Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld on the Parashah. Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications, 2002.
ISBN1-57819-723-6
British High Commissioner's reception at Government House, Jerusalem, with texts of the Proclamation, 1920. L-R: Rabbis Moshe Leib Bernstein, Yosef Chaïm Sonnenfeld, Yerucham Diskin, and Baruch Reuven Jungreis.
"InnerNet: Jewish CyberMag". Archived from
the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2006. (Excerpt from Artscroll biography of Rabbi Sonnenfeld)