Feinstein, Ḥayyim Jacob Ha-Kohen
FEINSTEIN, ḤAYYIM JACOB HA-KOHEN
FEINSTEIN, ḤAYYIM JACOB HA-KOHEN (second half of the 19th century), emissary from Safed who visited the Jewish communities in the Orient, including Aden, Yemen, and India. He was in the last country three times, in 1866, 1873, and 1887. While in Calcutta, he noted disapprovingly the practice of the Jews of using the trolley on the Sabbath, and wrote a treatise, Imrei Shabbat (1874), in which he vehemently opposed this custom. He published Torat Immekha (1886), in which he opposed other practices of Baghdadi Jews. In *Cochin (which he visited twice) he took the side of the "Non-White Jews," as he called the "Black Jews," and fought for their emancipation, maintaining that they were actually the early settlers while the "White Jews" were newcomers. He expressed these views in his Mashbit Milhamot (1889) which he submitted to the Co-chin Jews and to the chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Meir Panigel. His report appeared as a supplement to the second edition of his Imrei Shabbat (1889).
bibliography:
A. Yaari, Ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Arẓot ha-Mizraḥ, 2 (1940), 29, 30; idem, in: Sinai, 4 (1939), 416–21; 26 (1950), 342–4; D.S. Sassoon, Ohel Dawid, 2 (1932), 966–7; Bar-Giora, in: Sefunot, 1 (1947), 265–6.
[Walter Joseph Fischel]