Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Diskin
| Yehoshua Yehudah Leib Diskin | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1818 Grodno, Belarus |
| Died | 1898 Jerusalem, Israel |
| Parent(s) | Binyamin Diskin |
Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Diskin (1818–1898), also known as the Maharil Diskin, was a leading rabbi, Talmudist and Biblical commentator. He served as a rabbi in Łomża, Mezritch, Kovno, Shklov, Brisk and finally Jerusalem, after moving to Eretz Yisrael in 1878.
Diskin was born in Grodno, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1817. His father, Binyamin Diskin, was rabbi of that city, then Volkovisk and later Łomża. He was engaged before his Bar Mitzvah and at the age of fourteen he married the daughter of Rabbi Brode and lived with his father-in-law in Wolkowitz. He received rabbinic ordination at the age of 18 and inherited his father's rabbinate of Łomża at the age of 25.
In 1878, Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin left his rabbinical position in Brest-Litovsk and moved to Palestine, where he became recognized as the leading Rabininic figure for the Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem. The city's large religious community was then living under near impossible conditions. The persecution and disease from which the Jews of the Holy Land suffered moved Diskin to open a home for orphans in the Old City, after bringing needy children into his own home.
The Diskin Orphanage was formally established in 1881. From the Jewish Quarter, it moved to Street of the Prophets outside the walls of the Old City. Diskin's second wife, Sarah, known as the Brisker Rebbetzin, brought 40,000 rubles into the marriage which was used for the support of this institution.
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