Yosef Rivlin

Yosef Yitzhak "Yoshya" Rivlin (, 18 December 1836 – 5 September 1896) (Other sources list his year of death as 1896.) At the time, the Jewish population of Jerusalem was confined to the Old City, where they were prey to poverty, overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and heavy taxes imposed by the Ottoman government. Rivlin developed a vision of expanding the Jewish settlement into neighborhoods outside the walls of Jerusalem, although that prospect carried with it exposure to attackers and wild animals that roamed beyond the protective walls of the Old City.

Rivlin received his early education in cheder and attended the Etz Chaim yeshiva in the Old City as a youth. He married Sara Tzipa, the daughter of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Goldschmidt, in 1855. During their engagement, he sent her a message via her brother that he intended to found a new Jewish neighborhood outside the Old City walls and be the first to live there. The bride's family was appalled and wanted to break the match, and Rivlin's own family thought that a dybbuk had possessed him, but the bride agreed to Rivlin's plan. He protected himself from attackers by constructing a high wall around his home and paying a Turkish soldier and, later, an Arab guard, to keep an eye on him. He insisted that his wife remain in the Old City, while another Jew boarded with him. Until more homeowners moved in two and a half years later, he returned to his wife only on Shabbat. In 1872 the neighborhood was sufficiently populated that Rivlin brought his wife to live with him.

In 1873 he was one of the founders of Mea Shearim, whose name he coined. His modus operandi was to buy a house in each new neighborhood that he helped establish, live in it for a while, and then move to a new home in the next neighborhood that he founded. In each neighborhood he supervised the purchase and construction of homes and assisted home buyers in acquiring loans. He also helped establish community institutions and spoke in the local synagogue. One of his sermons inspired a wealthy philanthropist named David Reiss to underwrite the founding of another neighborhood, Beit David, in 1873. The Central Committee represented the community before the Ottoman authorities on everything from day-to-day issues to critical events, such as a proposed expulsion of Jewish foreign nationals. In his capacity as a director, Rivlin also welcomed the first Hovevei Zion immigrants to the yishuv and lauded the Sephardi communities for their contribution to Jerusalem's development.

After the death of his uncle, Yosef Yoel Rivlin, in an 1865 plague, Rivlin assumed the financial management of the Kollel Amsterdam distribution committee, which distributed funds received from Sir Moses Montefiore.

Writing A prolific author, Rivlin wrote articles for the leading Hebrew newspapers in Palestine and abroad, urging the development of the yishuv as a means to hasten the messianic redemption, as preached by the Vilna Gaon. He also composed poems and gematrias, based on Kabbalah, expounding these ideas. Hillel Rivlin became the secretary of the Central Committee, and was also among the founders of the village of Neve Yaakov. Shlomo Zalman Rivlin, an accomplished Hazzan, headed the Shirat Yisrael Institute and was the author of Shirei Shlomo, hazzanut compositions.

With his third wife, Minna, the daughter of Rabbi Zalman Brill Levi, Rivlin had one son, Moshe, who became a journalist for Der Morgen Journal in New York.

Although he managed huge sums in the development and construction of new neighborhoods, and his critics accused him of profiting from his activities, Rivlin lived a life of penury. Though he moved from house to house, he often had to sell the first house before the next one was built. He left nothing to his children, not even a house, and was unable to pay the doctors who treated him during his final illness. Rivlin died in his home in the Ezrat Yisrael neighborhood on Shabbat, 5 September 1896, at the age of 59. Payment for his medical care, as well as funds to provide for his widow and children after his death, were provided by Baron Shimon Wolf Rothschild of Frankfurt.

Yosef Rivlin Street in the Nahalat Shiv'a neighborhood is named after him.