Kevarim of Tzadikim in North America

Rabbi Nachum Streisand

by | Feb 10, 2009 | California, Pre 1900, San Francisco, CA | 27 comments

Rabbi Nachum Streisand

נחום ב"ר

Rav, Congregation Beth Yisroel, San Francisco, CA

Date of Death: Sun. January 12, 1879 - Teves 17 5639

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Cemetery:

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Directions to Kever: Hills of Eternity Cemetery maintains computerized records and will provide a detailed location map upon request. Colma is around 20 minutes from San Francisco and mostly consists of cemeteries. Location: Plot: A, Section: 1, Lot: 5, Grave: 7

Biographical Notes:

Rav Streisand a talmid (student) and great-grandson of Rav Akiva Eger was born in a suburb of Poznan (Posen), Poland in 1819. Prior to his arrival in the United State in 1869, the Rav served as maggid mesharim (a preacher of uprightness) of Fardon, a small town outside of Posen. He also published several of his Rebbe’s Halachic (Jewish law) rulings. The Rav’s first position in the United States was at Congregation Shaarei Tzedek in New York City. In 1872, prior to leaving for the West Coast, he published a safer (book)titled Le-lamed le-Toim Binah slamming the Reform movements and the customs they were introducing such as the use of an organ during prayers.
It is believed that the Rav was ordained by Rav Akiva Eger


Credit: Carmen Cisneros



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27 Comments

  1. HaRav
    HaRav on February 16, 2009 at 3:27 am

    Any luck?

  2. Bob Trank
    Bob Trank on May 6, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    Here is a obituary notice from the Daily Alta California newspaper, its from January 12, 1879:

    STRISANT – in this city, January 11, Ralbie Strisant, a native of Germany, aged 60 years.

    The Daily Alta California was among the first newspapers in San Francisco.

  3. Ted Braun
    Ted Braun on May 7, 2009 at 2:55 pm

    There is a good chance that the Rav was buried in one of these three cemeteries (these were the only Jewish ones back then)

    1. Beth Olam on Point Lobos Avenue

    2. Home Of Peace on Eighteenth and Nineteenth between Dolores and Church Streets

    3. Sherith Israel – part of Home Of Peace.

    The complicating issue is that these and all other “in town” cemeteries were moved during the early 1900’s.

  4. Ted Braun
    Ted Braun on May 7, 2009 at 5:31 pm

    Here is an article I just fount in the Los Angeles Times from Friday, November 12, 1993 its by Roy Rivenburg

    San Francisco – When the city dug up its graveyards earlier this century, no one was supposed to stay behind.
    But a glaring oversight surfaced this summer during renovation and expansion at the Palace of the Legion of Honor which was once the Golden Gate Cemetery.

    About 300 corpses from the Gold Rush era – two of them still clutching rosaries, others wearing dentures and Levis – were unearthed from what appears to be an old pauper’s graveyard. Some experts say another 11,000 bodies might lie underneath the museum grounds.

    “I’m not aware that any of them were [ex-humed],” says College of San Mateo history professor Michael Svanevik: The city simply knocked down all the monuments in 1909 and put in a golf course. The museum was added in 1924.
    Archeologist Miley Holman, whose firm handling the excavations says the discovery is like “looking into a time capsule” of San Francisco history – a very strange time capsule.
    Among the finds are a man who had a third arm buried with him, several medical-school cadavers and two coffins containing remnants of denim with rivets stamped Levi. The latter discovery, Holman says, has drawn a “flurry of interest” from San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co.
    Someone also left his or her heart in San Francisco – in a tiny box that at first appeared to hold some sort of tree root, Holman says.
    Most coffins, however, simply contain elderly men – believed to have been buried between 1870 and 1900 – wrapped in shrouds.
    “These are the people who probably built San Francisco,” he says. “It’s an incredibly valuable [find].”
    But the director of the Palace of Legion of Honor museum, which is paying steep surcharges for delays caused by the discovery, seems less excited: “[It’s] interesting, but not exactly King Tut’s tomb,” Harry Parker told a San Francisco newspaper.
    For now, the remains are at the coroner’s office, which by law must examine the bones, rebury them and attempt to notify next of kin.

  5. Baruch A
    Baruch A on August 25, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    Special thanks to Yaakov Berger of Lakewood, NJ for locating the Rav’s grave.

  6. MBD
    MBD on August 25, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    How was he great grandson?

  7. Baruch A
    Baruch A on August 25, 2009 at 5:20 pm

    Chronological listing:
    1. Rav Akiva Eger (d. 1837)
    2. Rav Avraham Brawitch Eger (d.1853 Rogasen, Poland)
    3. Chana Radisch Eger married Rav Yaacov Littauer
    4. Glueckhen Littauer married Rav Nachum Streisand
    He was actually a great grandson-in-law.

    Text Of Tombstone
    Note: parentheses are not part of the tombstone text.

    Here Lies
    Rabbi Nachum
    Streisand
    Born
    The town of (literally: holy congregation of)
    (Not sure) Grodzisk or Gorczyn (both are part of Poznan, Poland)
    Shevat, 5579 (1819)
    Died
    —–Crack In Stone———
    San Francisco
    At night 17th of the month of Tevet
    5639 (1879)

  8. YD Miller
    YD Miller on August 25, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    Wow! great discovery, thanks.

  9. YD Miller
    YD Miller on August 25, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    I dont know the exact spelling in English but the town גריידיץ is well known specifically with it’s known Rav Reb Eliyahu Guttmacher.

  10. neigerig
    neigerig on August 25, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    Great! Thanks R’ Baruch.

  11. YD Miller
    YD Miller on August 27, 2009 at 10:36 am

    On the now-popular Yiddish World Forums (see link below) there is a nice discussion on the biographical information on this unique Rav in those early American Jewish times.

    It appears from a Tchuvah (Talmudic response) found in Shu”t Mahar”i Hacohen, authored by the great Rabbi Israel Rappaport Chief Rabbi of Torno, where the Rav writes a response to Rav Striesand while he was still with Shari Tzedek in NY.

    The titles and compliments to the then NY Rabbi Streisand are very impressive, but most importantly it appears that it was a response on his Sefer mentioned above named ‘L’lamed To’im Binah’, the support Rav rappaport gives him on his ongoing battle against Reform Judaism which was a big challenge those days in the US, just shows how instrumental he was here that it was heard back in Galicia and Eastern Europe.

    It is fare to say that it is Rav Striesand and the other Orthodox Rabbis, to whom we should be thankful to this date laying the grounds and setting the stage for uncompromised Orthodoxy in the fashion of our fathers and forefathers.

    P.S. two comments on what is written above:
    1) In the Chronological Listing of the Linage to Rabbi Akiva Eger, his Grandfather-in-law is named “Rav Avraham Brawitch Eger” the word Brawitch is a mistake, his name was Rav Avrohom Eiger he was Chief Rabbi in a town named “Rawitch”, he was the oldest of 19 children and is buried alongside his father in Posen.
    2) The fact that Rav Striesand was a disciple of his G-Grandfather-in-law Rav Akive Eger, is somewhat challenging since he was only born 1839-5579 and RAE was Niftar 19 years later 1858-5598, perhaps it was only for a short period of time.

    The Topic in Yiddish-world:
    http://www.yiddishworld.com/forum/index.php?f=31&t=8821&rb_v=viewtopic
    The response in Mahri Hacohen on Hebrew Books.
    http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=252&st=&pgnum=53&hilite

  13. Farshlufen
    Farshlufen on August 20, 2010 at 10:41 am

    From the American Jewish Yearbook 1900:

    “[CONGREGATION] BETH MENACHIM STREISAND, 335-337 Minna.
    Founded 1860. Cantor, H. Samuelson, 84 Harriett.
    President, A. M. Jacobs; Vice-President, A. Shenson;
    Treasurer, A. Sugarman; Secretary, S. J. Levy, 6 Adair.
    Trustees: J. Simon, S. Axelrod, S. Glaser, J. Davis, S.
    Altfield, S. Cieglar, J. Danielowitz. Members, 60. Congregation
    meets first Sunday of the month. Services:
    Daily, morning and evening. Auxiliary Society: Ladies’
    Auxiliary.”

  14. Reb Elya
    Reb Elya on December 13, 2010 at 8:09 pm

    Make checks payable to IJCAH, and mail to:

    Baruch Amsel (Streisand) 1760 53 Street Lower Level Brooklyn, NY 11204

  15. curios
    curios on December 15, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    Miller, I don’t think Reb Avrohom Eiger was Rov Of Ravitch, he just resided there. Correct me if I’m mistaken.

  17. curios
    curios on December 15, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    Sad.

  19. YD Miller
    YD Miller on December 16, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    Curios,
    You are right.

    Thanks Mr. Berger for the Wiki Link, I see that Rabbo Aron J. Mesing replaced Rabbi Streisand in the Bies Yiisroel Shul in SF.

    Rabbi Messing was a famous Rav here in the US serving in Chicgao and San Francisco, where he passed away in 1909.

  20. Farshlufen
    Farshlufen on December 16, 2010 at 5:15 pm

    YD, What’s your source that he passed away in SF?

  23. plaitas
    plaitas on July 15, 2015 at 7:21 pm

    there is a digital copy of a lengthy letter of query regarding the status of a slaughterer, it is written to his teacher Rabbi Eliyahu Guttmacher in Graetz. in the letter there is a lot of personal information.

  26. Shalom
    Shalom on May 20, 2021 at 11:22 pm

    Is anyone aware of any other written tshuvos by Rav Streisand?

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