STERN, JOSEPH

STERN, JOSEPH (1803–1858), Hungarian rabbi. Stern was the son-in-law of Menahem *Stern. He studied with Ḥayyim of Kosov in the home of his father Menahem Mendel of Kosov. Stern claimed that he had studied the Shulḥan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah, 140 times and the other sections of the Shulḥan Arukh 111 times. He was ordained rabbi by the scholars Abraham David Wahrmann, rabbi of Buchach, and Nathan Nata Mueler, rabbi of Podgaytsy, and was first appointed rosh bet din ("head of the bet din") and then av bet din of Sighet. A bitter quarrel broke out in Sighet, as some of the community wanted to appoint in his stead Eleazar Nissin Teitelbaum, son of Moses Teitelbaum. Stern, who hated contention and strife, wanted to divide the rabbinic post, with Teitelbaum as rabbi and himself as head of the bet din. Nevertheless, this did not stop the dispute. Troublemakers accused Stern of attacking the government in his sermons, and he was imprisoned. Nearly all the inhabitants of the town condemned this step, and the government authorities were also convinced of his complete innocence. On the third day of his imprisonment the district officer, together with high government officials, entered the prison and asked forgiveness of the rabbi for the unpleasantness caused him and assured him that the transgressors would be severely punished. After six years of dissension and quarreling Teitelbaum left the town. The only one who supported Stern during difficult times was Jekuthiel Asher Zalman Ansel Zusmir, rabbi of Styria. Of Stern's writings only his introduction to his father-in-law's Derekh Emunah (vol. 1, 1856) and one responsum (no. 50) in the She'elot u-Teshuvot (1882, 48a–49a) of Zusmir are known.

bibliography:

J.J.(L.) Greenwald (Grunwald), Zikkaron la-Rishonim (1909), 26–28; idem, Maẓẓevat Kodesh (1952), 28–38; N. Ben-Menahem, Mi-Sifrut Yisrael be-Ungaryah (1958), 94–99.

[Naphtali Ben-Menahem]