Bernard L. Levinthal

Rabbi Bernard Louis Levinthal (; May 12, 1864 – September 23, 1952), the "Dean of U.S. Rabbis," built Philadelphia's first Eastern European Orthodox Jewish community from his arrival in the United States in 1891 until his death in 1952. Rabbi Levinthal helped found American Jewish Orthodox institutions including Yeshiva University in 1896, the Orthodox Union in 1898, Mizrachi in 1902, and the American Agudas Harabbanim. His grave is in Congregation Mikveh Israel's 55th Street Cemetery in West Philadelphia.

Early life Levinthal was born on the festival of Lag BaOmer in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania to a prominent, 17-generation rabbinical family. One of his ancestors was the 17th century author of Beth Hillel and Masse Hashem.

Rabbinic career in America In the early 1890s he helped start the Communal Hebrew School, the city's first daily Jewish school, and in the early 1900s Yeshiva Mishkan Yisroel — both predecessors to the United Hebrew Schools and Yeshivos.

In 1896, he helped found what became Yeshiva University's rabbinical seminary.

His wife, Mimie, died in 1929 and in 1935 he married the former Sarah Samson. He had four sons and at least one daughter, Lena Ehrlich, the mother-in-law of Samuel Belkin.

His sons include Rabbi Israel H. Levinthal of Brooklyn and Judge Louis E. Levinthal of Philadelphia. Helen Levinthal, the first woman to complete rabbinical training (and who graduated her course but was denied ordination), was his granddaughter.

Levinthal was a mentor to Bernard Revel, the first president of Yeshiva University's Yeshiva College, whose marriage Levinthal officiated at.

Politics and Zionism The Levinthals were known to President Taft, and attended his 25th wedding anniversary in 1911, while he was in office.

While he was unable to travel from America to Switzerland for the First World Jewish Congress in 1897, he did write a speech that was read there. He attended the 1936 Congress, with his second wife.

Levinthal was a founder of the Orthodox Union in 1898 and of Mizrachi (now Religious Zionists of America) in 1902; he was present at the 1906 founding of the American Jewish Committee as a delegate, and helped organize the American Jewish Congress in 1917. In 1919, he was sent by the American Jewish Committee to the Peace Conference at Versailles, one of only nine Jewish representatives.