Pinhas Hirschprung


Rabbi Pinhas Hirschprung was a Polish rabbi of Hasidic ancestry, who later emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where he served as Chief Rabbi.

Life

Rabbi Pinhas was born to Rabbi Chaim Hirschprung in the city of Dukla, in Poland in 1912. He first studied with his grandfather, Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Seeman, who was also the teacher of the Rebbe of Klausenburg, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam.
He later became a student of Rabbi Meir Shapiro, Dean of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva and founder of the Daf Yomi movement. Rabbi Shapiro once said about him that already as a youth, Rabbi Hirschprung knew all 2,200 folio pages of the Talmud by heart. After he reached the age of bar-mitzvah, he wrote his first book of Torah novellae, "Pri Pinchas", and then went on to write another book, "Ohel Torah", soon after. After Rabbi Shapiro died in 1933, Rabbi Hirschprung would test prospective students for admittance to the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, where entry required the memorization 200 Talmudic folio pages. He was endowed with an eidetic memory which enabled him to memorize the hundreds of volumes of rabbinic literature verbatim.
Rabbi Hirschprung shared a very close relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Rabbi Hirschprung's name and legacy are associated with an Orthodox Jewish girls' school, Beth Jacob d'Rav Hirschprung, located in Montreal, and with an enrolment of nearly 600 students. The school was founded by Rabbi Hirschprung in 1953, and counts as its alumnae many teachers, professionals, and Jewish community leaders the world over.
His wife, Alta Chaya Hirschprung, died on March 4, 2012. They are both buried in the Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery near Ste. Sophie, outside of Montreal.

Escape from Nazi-occupied Lublin

During World War II, Rabbi Hirschprung escaped to Kobe, Japan via Lithuania and then traveled on to Shanghai. In 1941, he reached Canada on the last boat to leave before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Rabbinate

He served as the chief Rabbi of Montreal from 1969 until his death January 25, 1998 as well as dean of the Rabbinical College of Canada yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch Montreal.