Scheinfeld, Solomon Isaac
SCHEINFELD, SOLOMON ISAAC
SCHEINFELD, SOLOMON ISAAC (1860–1943), U.S. Orthodox rabbi, Hebraist, and author. Scheinfeld was born in Scaudvil, Lithuania. He was ordained by Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Spektor in 1890, immigrating to the United States the following year. After a year in Milwaukee (1892–93) and almost a decade in Louisville, Kentucky, Scheinfeld returned to Milwaukee's Beth Israel congregation in 1902, remaining there until his death. Acknowledged rabbinic head of Milwaukee's Orthodox community during his tenure, Scheinfeld exerted leadership in all areas – religious, educational, war relief, charity and welfare, and Zionism. His unorthodox views on the revision and reconstruction of the prayer book were expressed in Ha-Shilo'aḥ (1921).
His literary works include five volumes of moral and ethical reflections on Judaism: Ha-Adam ba-Ma'aleh ("The Superior Man," 1931); Olam ha-Sheker (1936); Divrei Ḥakhamim (1941); Ẓiyyunim be-Derekh ha-Ḥayyim ("Way-marks in the Path of Life," 2 vols., 1922–28). He also wrote articles in the Hebrew encyclopedia, Oẓar Yisrael.
bibliography:
L.J. Swichkow and L.P. Gartner, History of the Jews of Milwaukee (1963), index; Even-Shayish, in: Ha-Shilo'aḥ, 25 (1911), 193–7.
[Louis J. Swichkow]