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R. Tzvi Hirsch b. Simeon Judah Leib Ferber (1879–November 1966), renowned Talmudic and Torah scholar, gifted orator, prolific author and tireless community builder. Born in Kovno, Lithuania, R. Ferber studied in the prestigious Slabodka yeshiva. He came to Manchester, England in 1911, where he founded a yeshiva along with R. Yehoshua Dov Silverstone. In July 1913, he accepted a call to become Rabbi of the West End Talmud Torah Synagogue in Soho, London, a community comprised of working-class Jewish immigrants of Eastern European origin.
Active in communal affairs, R. Ferber established the Chesed V’emeth Burial Society in 1915. He helped found the London yeshiva and was for many years the honorary secretary of the London "Vaad Harabonim" (rabbinical council) and chairman of the Association of London Rabbis ("Hisachdus Harabonim"). A member of its World Rabbinical council, Rabbi Ferber gave valuable assistance to the Agudas Yisroel movement. R. Ferber was rabbi of Soho for 42 years, from 1913 until his retirement in 1955. He died in 1966 in London.
In the world of Torah, R. Ferber was renowned as an outstanding scholar and sage. A prolific author, he produced 22 acclaimed works of Torah scholarship, perhaps the largest ever output by a Rabbi in England. He was also a frequent contributor to numerous Hebrew journals and an avid reader in the Hebrew collections of the British Library. Taking advantage of his location in the West End, he visited the Oriental Reading Room of the British Museum every day.
He wrote: Kerem HaTzvi – 5 volume work on the Torah and Haggada, issued between 1922 and 1938; Degel Machane Yehudah – dealing with the influence of some archaeological finds on Torah interpretation (1928); Shvil HaTzvi - commentary on Megillas Esther (1933); Birur Halacha - on civil marriages and divorce in Jewish law (1937); Sefer Hamo'adim - volume of sermons (1950). |
