MOYSHE LIKHTENSHTEYN (MORRIS LICHTENSTEIN)

MOYSHE LIKHTENSHTEYN (MORRIS LICHTENSTEIN) (1889-November 6, 1938)

            He was born in the town of Memel (Klaipėda), Lithuania, into a rabbinical family.  He attended religious elementary school and the Bialystok yeshiva.  At age seventeen he received ordination into the rabbinate.  In 1907 he moved to the United States, graduated from high school, and went on to study at university, receiving his doctorate in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Until 1921 he was rabbi in various Jewish communities, finally in New York.  He founded the “Jewish religious scientific society.”  He authored religious texts in Hebrew, English, and Yiddish, among them: Seyfer refues hanefesh, in diezen seyfer vert gevizen di virkung fun der idisher emune in teglikhen leben, oykh vi mispalel tsu zayn ven men iz krank un vi zikh tsu firen ven men iz gezund (On curing the soul, in this work will be shown the effect of the Jewish faith in daily life, also how to pray when one is ill and how to conduct oneself when one is healthy) (New York, 1934), 134 pp. + 11 pp.  He died in New York.

Sources: P. Vyernik, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (October 28, 1934; November 7, 1938); Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 6 (New York, 1942), p. 142, vol. 7, pp. 48-40; American Jewish Yearbook, vol. 41 (New York), p. 427.

Khayim Leyb Fuks