Joseph Saul Kornfeld

Joseph Saul Kornfeld (February 12, 1876 – June 29, 1944) was an American reform rabbi and diplomat. He was US minister to Persia (Iran) from 1922 to 1924.

Early life Kornfeld was born in 1876 in the Austro-Hungarian empire to Jewish parents. He came to the US as a child, and in 1899 was ordained a rabbi at Hebrew Union College. During his time in Iran (April 11, 1922 – September 1, 1924 ) he made contact with Iranian Jewry and helped fight antisemitism in many cases. In one specific case in September 1922 he helped restore the water supply to the Jewish neighborhood of Oudlajan when Reza Khan had blocked it. His last significant duty was conducting the inquiry into the murder of Acting Consul Robert W. Imbrie, who was attacked in the Tehran bazaar on July 18, 1924. Kornfeld left Tehran on September 1st and returned to the United States.

He was rabbi of the Collingwood Avenue temple in Toledo, Ohio (1925-1934).

He was a lecturer. He was acting rabbi at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple when he died in 1944.