{{Short description|Israeli rabbi and independence activist (1889-1956)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox person | native_name = זאב גולד | native_name_lang = he | image = Zeev Gold.jpg | caption = Gold in 1948 | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1889|05|02}} | birth_place = Szczuczyn, Congress Poland | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1956|04|08|1889|05|02}} | death_place = Jerusalem | political_party = Mizrachi }}
Rabbi '''Wolf Gold''' ({{langx|he|זאב גולד}}; '''Ze'ev Gold''', born '''Zev Krawczynski''' on May 2, 1889, died 8 April 1956) was a rabbi, Jewish activist, and one of the signers of the Israeli declaration of independence.
== Biography == Wolf was born on 2 May 1889 in the Polish town of Szczuczyn.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=1956-04-09 |title=מת הרב זאב גולד |trans-title=Rabbi Ze'ev Gold has died |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dav/1956/04/09/01/article/36/?srpos=4&e=01-04-1956---1956--he-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7CtxTI-%D7%96%D7%90%D7%91+%D7%92%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%93-------------1 |access-date=2025-08-02 |work=Davar |page=2 |language=he |via=National Library of Israel}}</ref> he was a descendant on his father's side from at least eight generations of rabbis.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} Gold's first teacher was his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Yehoshuah Goldwasser - a leader in Hovevei Zion. Later he studied at the Mir yeshiva under Rabbi Eliyahu Baruch Kamei. After that he studied in Lida at Yeshiva Torah Vo'Da'as,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Fried |first=Yitzy |date=2022-12-24 |title=Memory Lane: Rabbi Zev (Wolf) Gold. |url=https://www.boropark24.com/news/memory-lane-rabbi-zev-wolf-gold |access-date=2025-08-02 |website=Boro Park 24}}</ref> the yeshiva of Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines where Torah study was combined with secular studies. Gold was ordained as a rabbi at the age of 17 by Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitz of Minsk, and succeeded his father-in-law, Rabbi Moshe Reichler, as rabbi in Juteka.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
At the age of 18 he moved to the United States, where he served as rabbi in several communities including South Chicago, Scranton, Pennsylvania (until 1912), Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (1912–1919),<ref>Abelow, Samuel P., "The Jews of Williamsburg", in Hurwitz, Solomon Theodore Halivy. ''The Jewish Forum: A Monthly Magazine'', Volume 31, The Jewish Forum Publishing Co., 1948, p. 198.</ref><ref name=Sherman1996p78>Sherman, Moshe D. ''Orthodox Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, p. 78.</ref> San Francisco (until 1924) and Congregation Shomrei Emunah of Borough Park, Brooklyn (1928-1935).<ref>Summer, Morton, "Synagogue and Community In Boro Park". ''Yeshiva College Yearbook - Masmid'', 1954, p. 83</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1928-05-21 |title=Rabbi Installed in Temple Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/59995444/ |access-date=2025-08-02 |work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
He was a pioneer in establishing Orthodox Judaism in the United States. He founded the Williamsburg Talmud Torah, and in 1917 founded Yeshiva Torah Vodaas.<ref name=Sherman1996p78/><ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopaedia Judaica|year=1972|volume=7|page=697|publisher=Keter Publishing}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WaObe1cRLc0C |title=A Fire in His Soul: Irving M. Bunim, 1901-1980, the Man and His Impact on American Orthodox Jewry|first=Amos|last=Bunim|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|year=1989|isbn=0873064739|page=250}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lA-IGwAACAAJ&q=Rabbi+Yissocher+Frand:+In+Print |title= Rabbi Yissocher Frand in Print: Contemporary and Classic Issues Through the Prism of Torah|first1=Yissocher|last1=Frand|authorlink1=Yissocher Frand|first2=Yonason|last2=Rosenblum|authorlink2=Jonathan Rosenblum|publisher=Mesorah Publications Ltd.|year=1995|isbn= 0899066313|pages=218–219}}</ref> He started the Beth Moshe hospital in Bushwick, Brooklyn in 1920. In 1947 Beth Moses merged with Israel Zion Hospital to become Maimonides Hospital) and an orphanage in Brooklyn and also founded a Hebrew teachers training college in San Francisco.
In 1914, Rabbi Gold invited Rabbi Meir Berlin, secretary of the World Mizrachi, to come to New York to organize a branch of Mizrachi in the United States. For the next 40 years, Gold traveled in the United States and Canada organizing chapters of the Mizrachi movement and became president of American Mizrachi in 1932.<ref>Moshe Sherman, Orthodox Judaism in America, (Ct. 1996), pp. 78-79.</ref>
In 1935, he emigrated to Palestine, where he became the head of the Department of Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora and worked to establish new educational institutions within the Diaspora, especially for North African Jews.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
During World War II, he was involved in the widespread Zionist opposition to the British White Paper of 1939 and worked to rescue European Jewry from the Holocaust. In 1943, he traveled to the United States where he participated as a speaker on behalf of European Jewry at the Rabbis' march in Washington.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Institute |first=Wyman |date=2004-07-07 |title=Photos of the day the Rabbis marched |url=http://new.wymaninstitute.org/2004/07/photos-of-the-day-the-rabbis-marched/ |access-date=2025-11-09 |website=The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies |language=en-US}}</ref>
He was a member of the Jewish Agency Executive, heading the Department for Jerusalem Development. In 1946, he was a member of the Jewish Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly.<ref name=":1" />
He served as Vice-President of the Provisional State Council and went on to sign the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Declaration of Independence |url=https://m.knesset.gov.il/en/about/pages/declaration.aspx |access-date=2025-08-02 |website=Knesset}}</ref> He served on the founding committee of Bar-Ilan University.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
On 8 April 1956, Gold died of heart disease at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem,<ref>{{Cite news |date=1956-04-09 |title=הרב זאב גולד |trans-title=Rabbi Ze'ev Gold |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/ahr/1956/04/09/01/article/88 |access-date=2025-08-02 |work=Al HaMishmar |page=4 |language=he |via=National Library of Israel}}</ref> and was buried near his lifelong friend Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1956-04-09 |title=הרב זאב גולד - למנוחות |trans-title=Rabbi Ze'ev Gold - to rest |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/mar/1956/04/09/01/article/47/?e=-------he-20--1--img-txIN%7CtxTI--------------1 |access-date=2025-08-02 |work=Maariv |page=3 |language=he}}</ref> He had at the time of his death three daughters and a son.<ref name=":1" /> Two years after his death, a Jewish woman's teacher training seminary was established in the city and named after him; Machon Gold.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The History of Machon Gold |url=http://www.machongold.org/history.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070922194251/http://www.machongold.org./history.php |archive-date=2007-09-22}}</ref>
His grandson, Rabbi Yaakov Katz, is a Rosh Yeshiva (dean) at Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}
==See also== *Zev Wolf (disambiguation page)
==References== {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}
==External links== *{{Cite Tidhar|4|1873|הרב זאב (וולף) גולד|title=Rabbi Ze'ev (Wolf) Gold}} *The Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem [http://www.zionistarchives.org.il site]. Office of Rabbi Ze'ev Gold (S58).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold, Wolf}} Category:1889 births Category:1956 deaths Category:20th-century Polish rabbis Category:American Orthodox rabbis Category:Israeli Orthodox rabbis Category:Signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence Category:Orthodox rabbis in Mandatory Palestine Category:Heads of the Jewish Agency for Israel Category:Mir Yeshiva alumni Category:20th-century American rabbis Category:People from Grajewo County Category:Immigrants of the Fifth Aliyah Category:Burials at Sanhedria Cemetery