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R. Ben-Shem

Reuven Feldschuh (Ben-Shem) was a Revisionist Zionist activist, rabbi, journalist and writer in Poland and Israel, and the first chief rabbi of Poland after the Holocaust.

1900 to 1980First postwar chief rabbi of PolandRevisionist Zionist youth leadership in PolandFounding the Jewish State Party

Born: 28 February 1900, Buchach
Died: 30 August 1980, Giv'at Shmuel
Occupation: journalist, rabbi, opinion journalist, Hebraist
Education: University of Vienna

R. Ben-Shem was born in 1900 in Buchach

Reuven Feldschuh was born in February 1900 in Buchach, in eastern Galicia, to Yosef and Rachel. At the start of World War I his family moved to Vienna. He was an early member of the Hashomer Hatzair movement.

In 1919 he moved to the Land of Israel and worked as a farm laborer and guard in Bitania, then helped found Kiryat Anavim. After his father was murdered in Ukraine, he returned to Vienna and studied psychology. He earned a doctorate in 1923 and was ordained as a rabbi.

In 1925 he joined the Revisionist movement of Ze'ev Jabotinsky and later edited its Yiddish monthly in Warsaw. After a split with Jabotinsky, he joined Meir Grossman in founding the Jewish State Party in 1933. He founded youth groups including Hashomer Haleumi and, in 1935, Brit Kanaim.

He took part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. After the war he served as chief rabbi of Poland and helped rebuild its Jewish community. In Israel he was the principal of high schools.