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Papers of Rabbi Abraham A. Price
- Level
- File
- ID
- Fonds 21; File 16
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 21
- File
- 16
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1942-1962
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Admin History/Bio
- Rabbi Abraham A. Price was a prominent Rabbi and Talmudic scholar in Toronto. He was born on December 10, 1900 in Stopnitz, Poland to Rabbi Joseph and Basia Price. He married Sarah Wine, and had two children: a son, Moshe Leib, who predeceased him, and a daughter, Leah (Lola) Zuchowsky. He also had a brother Lazar.
- Price lived in Poland until 1923, when he moved to Berlin and became a banker. He left Berlin for Paris in 1931, and lived there for 6 years before fleeing to the United States in 1937. Rabbi Price originally went to New York City, but spent only ten days there before moving to Toronto.
- Rabbi Price studied with world-famous scholars Rabbi Abraham Borenstein and Rabbi Sillman, by whom he was ordained at the Rabbinical Seminary Sochatzow (Sochatov), Poland in 1919. He was hired in 1937 by Moishe Oelbaum, Moishe Sigal, and W.J. Silverberg to head Yeshivah Torath Chaim and to act as the official rabbi of Chevra Shas Congregation. Price remained dean of the yeshivah until at least 1985. He published ten volumes of highly acclaimed rabbinical studies, including three volumes of Mishnath Avraham with commentaries of the Book of the Pious "Sefer Chasidim," which were awarded the Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook Award of Merit in 1965. It was the first time this prize was given to an author outside Israel.
- Price was one of Toronto's most influential rabbinic authorities. He worked tirelessly to help European yeshivah students during and after the Second World War. In 1942 he orchestrated the release of over 50 German-Jewish men from an internment camp in Quebec, and brought them to study at the yeshivah. In 1948 he again intervened to sponsor 55 young yeshivah boys from Prague. He brought these boys to study at Torath Chaim as well.
- Rabbi Price died on Thursday, March 31, 1994 in Toronto. His estate donated his collection of over 3000 printed rabbinical works to the University of Toronto Library, including over 300 items printed before 1800.
- Scope and Content
- This file contains correspondence sent and received by Rabbi Abraham A. Price between 1942 and 1962. The letters relate to Rabbi Price's involvement in having Jewish-German internees released from internment camps in 1942, and Czechoslovakian refugees brought over to study at the yeshivah in 1948. It also includes inquiries made and references given about former students.
- Name Access
- Price, Abraham A., 1900-1994
- Subjects
- Rabbis
- Source
- Archival Descriptions