Joseph Lookstein

Joseph Hyman Lookstein (; December 25, 1902 – July 13, 1979) was a Russian-born American rabbi who served as spiritual leader of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and was a leader in Orthodox Judaism, including his service as president of the Rabbinical Council of America and of the cross-denominational Synagogue Council of America and New York Board of Rabbis. He was President of Bar-Ilan University from 1957 to 1967.

Biography Lookstein was born in Mogilev, Belarus, then in the Russian Empire. He emigrated to the United States in 1908, attended City College of New York and did graduate work at Columbia University. He received his Jewish education at Rabbi Jacob Joseph School and received his rabbinic ordination in 1926 from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University. He had already served as a rabbi in Brooklyn, and then assistant rabbi for three years at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, under Rabbi Moses S. Margolies, grandfather of his future wife. Lookstein continued in that role after receiving his ordination, assuming the title of senior rabbi after Margolies's death in 1936.

In 1930, he established the Hebrew Teachers Training School for Girls, now part of Yeshiva University, and served as its principal for ten years.

He was the chief military chaplain of the United States, holding the ceremonial rank of Brigadier General, in the period after World War II. During his tenure, the school grew from a single building with 40 students into a school with an enrollment of thousands. By the time of his death, the school had an enrollment of 800 students. Gerdie's They had eight grandchildren, four each from their two children. His son, Haskel Lookstein, had served as the Assistant Rabbi at Congregation Kehillath Jeshurun starting in 1958, and assumed the title of Senior Rabbi upon his father's death.