Meyer Rosenbaum (II)

Meyer Rosenbaum was the spiritual leader of the Kehilla Adath Israel and the self-proclaimed Chief Rabbi of Cuba from 1948 to the Winter 1956–1957, when he left for Venezuela, then Guatemala and New York.

Rosenbaum was born on 12 August 1910 in Charnovitch (then in Austro-Hungary), a son of Rebbe Isamar Rosenbaum. In 1918 the area came under Romanian rule. Rosenbaum left in 1933 for Palestine, where he learned in Hevron Yeshiva (Jerusalem). He received his rabbinic ordination in 1936, Isamar's only son who did not become a Hasidic rabbi. In 1937, he moved to New York. In 1948 Rosenbaum arrived in Cuban on a charity collection mission for the Israeli Irgun. He soon became the Rabbi of Adath Israel-K’neseth Israel, then later rabbi of the Patronato.

Rosenbaum was also accomplished in the secular world. He attended the University of Vienna and New York University. In Cuba, he taught at the Universidad de la Habana.

When Rosenbaum was still associated with Kehilla Ahdut Israel (the combined Adath Israel and K’neseth Israel), he founded the orthodox Tajkemoni School [1] (Calle 21 No. 561 in Vedado) on 20 October 1949. Tajkemoni was an Orthodox yeshiva-type school with an enrollment of about eighty Ashkenazi pupils. It constituted a threat to the Centro Israelita and its Colegio, and it was probably responsible for some of the decline in enrollment at the Colegio. The principal was Yosef Abrami, who was present at the founding meeting of the Patronato. Abrami previously had taught in the Centro Israelita. He also authored many scholarly works in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Spanish.