Rav in New York City
d. 9 Av, 1895 (5655)
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Directions to kever:
Bayside Cemetery
80-35 Pitkin Avenue
Ozone Park, NY 11417
212-874-7005
(Gate: 31, towards the back of the cemetery.)
The cemetery is in disarray, use caution when visiting!!!
Rabbi Shlomo Mordecai Siskind (Ziskind)
December 31st, 2009 · 8 Comments
Tags: Needs Repair · New York · Pitkin Avenue Cemeteries · Pre 1900 · Queens / L.I., NY · Unknown
8 responses so far ↓
1 Asher // Dec 31, 2009 at 11:39 am
Awesome, back to Bayside! It’s on the right side of the path.
2 YD Miller // Dec 31, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Does not mention his father’s name?
This is one of the older ones on this site very intresting. Rabbi Siskind was the Rabbi of Congregation Chevra Mikra Kodesh and it appears from an intresting NYT Article in 1880 (see link below) that he was instrumental in setting up Kosher Schchita-Slaughtering in NY.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=950CE1D71E31EE3ABC4A51DFB466838B699FDE
3 asher // Oct 11, 2010 at 10:28 pm
He’s buried in gate 31 – Suwallker Congregation. Safe to say he served in the Suwalker shul?
4 YD Miller // Oct 12, 2010 at 3:10 pm
As I mentioned in the lnik below, I have a feeling that Rabbi Ziskind is the person to who Reb Shimon Sofer of Crakow responded in a Tchuvah written in 1881 on the topic of Gittin in the US.
http://www.yiddishworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=307277&sid=c2495b92df982985d90db6bd5f66402b#p307277
5 YD Miller // Oct 12, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I found an astonishing article in “The Sun” dated December 29 1890, Where rabbi Siskind was arrested for allegedly “selling” divorces, those days Rabbis were not allowed to issue divorces, only the court was allowed to do that.
The article goes on and reveals that Rav Siskind who at the time lived in the basement of 58 Eldridge St. and is noted as “An Eldridge St Rabbi” reportedly did this for a living bringing his revenue up to $700.00 annually from issuing divorces.
The allegation was brought to court by the “United Hebrew Charities” (not sure what theier intention was exactly).
Read the full article:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1890-12-29/ed-1/seq-1.pdf
The news was covered in several other newspapers including “The Pittsburgh Dispatcher” which in the same year in March reported about a Get that was issued by Rabbi Siskind, from which we find out that his father’s name was Joseph and (as mentioned in the NYT article above) was the Rabbi of Mikro Kosdesh.
See:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024546/1890-03-11/ed-1/seq-1.pdf
6 YD Miller // Oct 12, 2010 at 5:25 pm
There was a Rabbi in the town of Meriden, CT named Rabbi Abraham Sisikind who became the Rabbi there and served as the Shochet from 1887, perhaps we can try to establish a relationship.
See here some minor details and a nice picture:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-zQWAAAAYAAJ&dq=Rabbi%20Siskind&pg=RA1-PA205#v=onepage&q=Rabbi%20Siskind&f=false
7 asher // Oct 12, 2010 at 6:10 pm
good work, Miller! $700 a year? what a world of a difference.
8 YD Miller // Oct 25, 2010 at 2:27 pm
The “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” reports on the Divorce Scandal:
http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:LowLevelEntityToSaveGifMSIE_BEAGLE&Type=text/html&Locale=english-skin-custom&Path=BEG/1890/12/29&ChunkNum=-1&ID=Ar00464
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