Sarachek, Joseph
SARACHEK, JOSEPH
SARACHEK, JOSEPH (1892–1953), U.S. Conservative rabbi and scholar. Sarachek, born in New York City, was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1916. He occupied various pulpits in the New York area, served as chaplain for the New York City Department of Correction, and taught at Yeshiva University. He was president of the New York Board of Rabbis in 1941–42. Sarachek devoted himself principally to research in medieval Jewish literature. He wrote The Doctrine of the Messiah in Medieval Jewish Literature (1923), Faith and Reason: The Conflict Over the Rationalism of Maimonides (1935; 19702); and Don Isaac Abravanel (1938). These works are especially useful to students of the intellectual and religious history of medieval Jewry.
[Sefton D. Temkin]