Chicago
In 1954, Mescheloff moved to Chicago, in time to celebrate Hanukkah with his new congregation in West Rogers Park, Chicago, Congregation K.I.N.S. (Knesset Israel Nusach Sfard) of West Rogers Park. Rabbi Joseph Lookstein was the installing officer and guest speaker at his installation, on January 9, 1955.
This was a second period of major crisis for American Orthodox Jewish life. Sociologists and social scientists were proclaiming the end of Orthodoxy in America. Its European roots and lifeline had been destroyed in The Holocaust, and it was thought to be unable to maintain itself in the face of the newfound Jewish freedom and rampant assimilation in America.
Mescheloff worked devotedly on behalf of Torah in his congregation. The synagogue had a very large Hebrew and Sunday School, with many hundreds of students for over twenty years. Moses Mescheloff oversaw the school, encouraging students to continue their education in more intense Jewish educational environments. He officiated at thousands of Bar-Mitzvahs and Bat-Mitzvahs. He also performed thousands of weddings, visited thousands of sick people, comforted the bereaved, and officiated at funerals and memorial services. For twenty-eight years he conducted weekly Talmud classes, organized adult education courses at the synagogue, and was one of the lecturers. The cumulative effect of his life's work was to leave an indelible imprint on the lives of tens of thousands for whom he ministered at crucial turning points in their lives.
Mescheloff also worked tirelessly for the advancement of Torah living in the general Jewish community. He made a major contribution to bringing about the renaissance of the Orthodox Jewish community in America. Through his religious Zionist work he also made a major contribution to the renaissance of Torah true Jewish life in Israel.
Over the years Rabbi Mescheloff held many positions in Chicago. He served as president of the Chicago Rabbinical Council (CRC), president of the Chicago Religious Zionist Council and president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. He was Chairman of the CRC's Publication Committee. Together with Rabbi Schachnowitz, he was co-chairman of the Joint Vaad Hakashruth of the CRC and the Mercaz Harabbonim. He was a member of Chicago’s Jewish Community Relations Council, the Council for Jewish Elderly and was involved in many public causes. He was featured on the radio in a series of lectures on World literature and appeared on Chicago television programs presented by the Chicago Board of Rabbis, including several series: "The Jewish Court", "Some of My Best Friends", and "Sanctuary".
Mescheloff was called upon frequently to open Chicago City Council meetings with an invocation. On one of these occasions, on May 13, 1981, the Mayor received word that Pope John Paul II had been shot. Mescheloff, still in the Council chambers, was called upon to offer prayers for his recovery. His non-sectarian prayer was then re-broadcast throughout that day. He served as an officer or a member of the Board of the Mayor's Advisory Council on Human Relations, the Chicago Commission on Race and Religion, the North Town Community Council, the North Town Inter-faith Fellowship, the Chicago Inter-religious Council for the Homeless, the Mayor's Advisory Council for the Department on Aging, and the North Town/Rogers Park Division for Chicago's Mental Health Association.
Mescheloff was elected by the Hall of Fame Selection Committee and inducted by Mayor Richard M. Daley into Chicago's Senior Hall of Fame, at a full session of the City Council on May 25, 1989. Mescheloff was honored by the city of Chicago on May 1, 2002, when Vice-Mayor Alderman Bernard L. Stone unveiled a street sign in front of the entrance to Congregation K.I.N.S., “Honorary Rabbi Moses Mescheloff Street”. Stone noted that "Not only did he have all the attributes of a rabbi — knowledgeable, articulate — he was an exceptionally kind and gentle man."
Mescheloff was a member of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) from 1935 until his death, for seventy-five years. He contributed annually to the RCA’s Sermon Manual for as long as it was published. Subsequently, he contributed sermons to the RCA’s holiday brochures, as well as scholarly articles for the RCA’s Hadarom (in Hebrew). He also wrote scholarly articles for Oraita (in Israel), and Chadashot (CRC) and has written articles on Judaism and on Jewish life for the Chicago Sentinel, Hadassah Women and AMIT Women magazines. The Legal Encyclopedia, “Florida Law on the Family, Marriage and Divorce” includes his chapter, entitled “Procedure in Obtaining a Jewish Divorce”. See a partial list of his publications below.
In 1980 Mescheloff received the degree Doctor of Hebrew Literature from the graduate school of the Hebrew Theological College of Skokie, Illinois, Summa Cum Laude. He is listed in the Biographical Encyclopedia of American Jews, Who's Who in World Jewry and Who's Who in World Zionism.
After ten years, the congregation signed a life contract with Mescheloff. From 1982 he served as Rabbi Emeritus. Mescheloff worked in close cooperation and mutual respect and admiration with the two rabbis who followed him, in succession, as spiritual leaders of the congregation. They sat together at the front of the congregation during services. Rabbi Dr. Leonard Matanky has continued to lead the congregation as the central religious zionist synagogue in the Midwest, continuing the tradition of deep involvement in Jewish education and other Jewish and civic activities. When each new rabbi was away, Mescheloff would deliver sermons and teach Torah classes in his absence.
Mescheloff's communal work continued apace well into his mid-nineties. He could be seen walking to the synagogue daily at a pace that tired young men who might accompany him, sitting in the Beit Midrash, attending lectures in halakha by Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, the head of the Bet Din of the RCA and the CRC, listening intently to Talmud lessons over the internet, and preparing Torah messages. Mescheloff made himself available to others for discussing Torah, academic and Jewish community issues of all types.
A few months before Mescheloff's ninety-ninth birthday, he took ill, and died, in Chicago, on Friday, 4 Iyyar 5768 (May 9, 2008)). He was interred in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Fairview, New Jersey, near his in-laws, Rabbi Dr. and Mrs. Schonfeld. He was survived by his wife of seventy-three years, Magda, their three children, sixteen grandchildren, and nearly sixty great-grandchildren, the great majority of whom are in Israel.
The Mescheloff children followed in their parents' path: Renah (married to Rabbi Alexander Bell), Rabbi Dr. Efrom Mescheloff (married to Felice, née Rosenberg), and Rabbi Dr. David Mescheloff (married to Irene, née Goldschmidt). The two sons are both members of the Rabbinical Council of America, and both immigrated to Israel and established large Othodox Jewish families there.
Mescheloff’s semikhah bears the signature of Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, who was the Rosh yeshiva of RIETS during the 1930s. Mescheloff was one of thirteen rabbis ordained in America by Moshe Soloveitchik. The semicha of Mescheloff's older son, Efrom, was signed by Soloveitchik's son, Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, who followed his father as Rosh Yeshiva of RIETS. Mescheloff's younger son, David, received his semicha from the Hebrew Theological College of Skokie, where a younger son of Soloveitchik's, Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, then the Rosh Yeshiva, signed his semikhah.
Read more about this topic: Moses Mescheloff, Biography, Rabbinical Positions