View source for Meir Bar-Ilan

{{Short description|Israeli rabbi (1880–1949)}}
{{other uses|Bar-Ilan (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox Jewish leader
| honorific-prefix = Rabbi
| name = Meir Bar-Ilan<br>מֵאִיר בַּר-אִילָן
| honorific-suffix = 
| title = 
| image = File:Meir Bar-Ilan (16230829288).jpg
| caption = 
| synagogue = 
| synagogueposition = 
| organisation = [[Mizrachi (religious Zionism)|Mizrachi]]
<!---------- Personal details ---------->| birth_name = Meir Berlin
| birth_date = {{birth date|1880|04|10}}
| birth_place = [[Valozhyn|Volozhin]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1949|04|17|1880|04|10}}
| death_place = [[Jerusalem]]
| yahrtzeit = 
| buried = [[Sanhedria Cemetery]]
| nationality = 
| denomination = [[Orthodox Judaism]]
| parents = 
| father = [[Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin]]
| mother = 
| spouse = Baila Rabinowitz
| children = 
| alma_mater = [[Volozhin Yeshiva]]<br>[[University of Berlin]]
| semicha = 
| signature = Meir_Bar-Ilan_Signature_from_the_Goldman_Collection.png
}}

'''Meir Bar-Ilan''' ({{Langx|he|מֵאִיר בַּר-אִילָן}}; {{birth date|1880|04|10}} &ndash; {{death date|1949|04|17}}) was an [[Orthodox Judaism|orthodox]] [[rabbi]], [[author]], and [[Religious Zionism|religious Zionist]] activist, who served as leader of the [[Mizrachi (religious Zionism)|Mizrachi]] movement in the [[United States]] and [[Mandatory Palestine]]. [[Bar-Ilan University]], founded in 1955, was named in his honour.

==Biography==
===Early life===
[[File:Chaimwalkinvolozin.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Bar-Ilan (standing, second from right) with members of his family.]]
Bar-Ilan was born Meir Berlin in 1880 to a [[Lithuanian Jews|Lithuanian Jewish]] family, the youngest son of Rabbi [[Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin]] and his second wife Rayna Batya Miriam Berlin ({{nee|Epshtein}}). Bar-Ilan's father was the head of the famous [[Volozhin Yeshiva]] in Lithuania.<ref>{{cite book|first=Baruch HaLevi|last=Epstein|title=My Uncle the Netziv|publisher=ArtScroll Mesorah Publications|date=1988|isbn=978-0-89906-492-5}}</ref> Bar-Ilan was also a descendant of Rabbi [[Meir ben Isaac Katzenellenbogen|Meir Katzenellenbogen]], the Maharam of Padua.<ref name="unbroken">{{cite book|last=Rosenstein|first=Neil|title=The Unbroken Chain: Biographical Sketches and Genealogy of Illustrious Jewish Families from the 15th-20th Century|volume=1, 2|edition=revised|publisher=CIS Publishers|location=New York|year=1990|isbn=978-0-9610578-4-8}}</ref>

He studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva and, after his father's death in 1894, at the traditional yeshivas of [[Telz Yeshiva|Telshe]], [[Brisk yeshivas|Brisk]] and [[Novardok yeshiva|Novardok]], where he learned with his maternal grandfather, Rabbi [[Yechiel Michel Epstein]]. After gaining ''[[semicha]]'' in 1902 at the age of twenty-two, Bar-Ilan travelled to Germany to attend the [[University of Berlin]]. There, he became acquainted with a more modern form of [[modern Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Judaism]] that had a more tolerant attitude to secular education and to political [[Zionism]] (although such attitudes were also present in the Lithuania of his youth). Bar-Ilan was deeply influenced by the local religious community and its philosophy of ''[[Torah im Derech Eretz]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mizrachi Biography Series: Rav Meir Bar Ilan [Berlin] (1880-1949)|website=Mizrachi World Movement|access-date=22 January 2019|url=https://mizrachi.org/mizrachi-biography-series-rav-meir-bar-ilan-berlin-1880-1949/|archive-date=21 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221111219/http://mizrachi.org/mizrachi-biography-series-rav-meir-bar-ilan-berlin-1880-1949/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Mizrachi movement and ''Ha’Ivri''===
In 1905 Bar-Ilan joined the [[Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)|Mizrachi movement]], representing it at the [[Zionist Congress|Seventh Zionist Congress]], at which he voted against the [[Uganda Proposal]] to create a temporary Jewish homeland in [[British East Africa]], as suggested by Great Britain.<ref name="Meir Bar-Ilan 1880-1949">{{cite web|last= |first= |title= Meir Bar-Ilan (1880–1949) |url=http://jafi.org/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education/Compelling+Content/Eye+on+Israel/Gallery+of+People+%28Biographies%29/Bar-Ilan+Meir.htm|work= JewishAgency |accessdate=2 October 2013}}</ref>

In 1911, he founded the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] [[weekly newspaper]] ''Ha’Ivri'' in Berlin as a "non-party paper dedicated to all the affairs of Israel, faithful in its spirit to our religious tradition and to our national renaissance."<ref name=brown>{{cite journal|title=All, All Alone: The Hebrew Press in America from 1914 to 1924|first=Michael Gary|last=Brown|journal=American Jewish Historical Quarterly|volume=59|number=2|date=December 1969|pages=139–178|jstor=23877771}}</ref> That same year, Bar-Ilan was appointed secretary of the world Mizrachi movement. In 1913 he came to the United States and developed local Mizrachi groups into a national organisation, chairing the first [[Religious Zionists of America|American Mizrachi]] convention, held in [[Cincinnati]] in May 1914.<ref name=medoff>{{cite news|url=https://jewishaction.com/jewish-world/history/rabbi-meir-bar-ilan-forgotten-pioneer-jewish-activism/|title=Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan: Forgotten Pioneer of Jewish Activism|newspaper=Jewish Action|first=Rafael|last=Medoff|date=Fall 2014}}</ref>

Bar-Ilan settled in New York in 1914, becoming president of the American Mizrachi movement the following year, a position he held until 1928.<ref name="Meir Bar-Ilan 1880-1949"/> In his absence  ''Ha’Ivri'' ceased publication in April 1914, but was re-established under Bar-Ilan's direction in New York in January 1916. Published until 1921, the paper's contributors included such prominent writers as [[S. Y. Agnon]], [[Joseph Opatoshu]], [[Reuben Brainin]], [[Eliezer Ben-Yehuda]], and [[Yehuda Leib Maimon]].{{r|brown}} Bar-Ilan was also an active member of the [[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee|Joint Distribution Committee]] during [[World War I]], and served as vice president of the Central Relief Committee of New York City in 1916. He founded the Mizrachi Teachers Institute in 1917. From 1920 through 1922, Bar-Ilan briefly served as acting president for what is now [[Yeshiva University]] during the temporary absence of its then-president, [[Bernard Revel]].

===Life in Mandate Palestine===
[[File:הרב מאיר בר אילן-JNF045405.jpeg|250px|thumb|Meir Bar-Ilan in 1938]]
[[File:SEPHARDIC CHIEF RABBI BEN TZION UZIEL (L) AT A MEMORIAL CEREMONY FOR JEWISH SOLDIERS WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR II, HELD AT THE MEMORIAL FOREST IN THE JERUD21-084.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Bar-Ilan with [[List of Sephardi chief rabbis of the Land of Israel|Sephardi chief rabbi]] [[Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel|Ben-Zion Uziel]] at a World War II memorial service in 1946.]]
In 1923 he moved to [[Jerusalem]]. In Palestine, Bar-Ilan founded the daily newspaper ''[[HaTzofe|Hatzofeh]]'' and initiated the ''Encyclopedia Talmudit'', a Hebrew encyclopedia summarizing [[halacha|halachic]] topics in the Talmud, forty-two volumes of which have been published to date.{{r|medoff}} Bar-Ilan also served on the board of directors of the [[Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot|Mizrachi Bank]] and, in 1925, became a member of the Board of Directors of the [[Jewish National Fund]], devoted to financing the rebuilding of the Jewish homeland in the then-[[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate of Palestine]].

He was a vocal opponent of the 1937 British [[Peel Commission|Peel Commission partition proposal]] and the 1939 British [[White Paper of 1939|White Paper]], and advocated [[civil disobedience]] and non-cooperation by the [[Jew]]s with the British.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Bar-Ilan (Berlin), Meir|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]]|first=Zvi|last=Kaplan|date=2007|access-date=22 January 2019|publisher=Thomson Gale|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bar-ilan-berlin-meir}}</ref>

At the beginning of 1943, Bar-Ilan visited the United States to lobby the American government to rescue [[Holocaust|Jewish refugees]] and help establish a Jewish state. He secured meetings with leading politicians and foreign ambassadors, including Vice President [[Henry A. Wallace|Henry Wallace]], Senator [[Robert F. Wagner|Robert Wagner]], Senate Majority Leader [[Alben W. Barkley|Alben Barkley]], and House Minority Leader [[Joseph W. Martin Jr.|Joseph Martin]].{{r|medoff}}

==Scholarship==
Along with Rabbi [[Shlomo Yosef Zevin]], Bar-Ilan was the editor of the ''Talmudical Encyclopedia'' ({{Langx|he|אנציקלופדיה תלמודית}}), Volumes I (Jerusalem, 1946) and II (published posthumously in 1949).<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Arutz Sheva|title=Talmudic Encyclopedia Head Dies|date=20 April 2009|first=Hillel|last=Fendel|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130935}}</ref> He also wrote articles on Talmudic subjects for various periodicals. Notable works of Bar-Ilan include:
* ''{{Transliteration|yi|Eretz Yisroel in der milḥome un nokh der milḥome}}'' ({{Langx|yi|ארץ ישראל אין דער מלחמה און נאָך דער מלחמה}}; New York, 1934)
* ''Fun Volozhin biz Yerushalayim'' ({{langx|yi|פון וואָלאָז'ין בּיז ירושלים}}; in Yiddish, New York, 1933; in Hebrew, Tel Aviv, 1939–40), autobiography in two volumes
* ''Bishvil ha-Techiah'' (Tel Aviv, 1940) 
* ''Raban shel Yisrael'' ({{langx|he|רבן של ישראל}}; New York, 1943)

After 1948, his activities were scholastically oriented. He organized a committee of scholars to examine the legal problems of the new state in the light of Jewish law and founded an institute for the publication of a new complete edition of the Talmud.

==Legacy==
Bar-Ilan inspired the founding of [[Bar-Ilan University]] in [[Ramat Gan]] by the American Mizrachi movement, named in his honour. The moshav [[Beit Meir]] is named in his honour, as are the Meir Forest in the [[Mount Hebron|Hebron Hills]] and [[Bar-Ilan Street]] in Jerusalem, as well as streets in several other Israeli cities.

==References==
{{Commons category|Meir Bar-Ilan}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Meir Bar-Ilan}}
*[https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/my-father-the-netziv-the-extraordinary-life-of-rabbi-meir-bar-ilan/ Podcast episode] on Meir Bar-Ilan by Jewish History Soundbites

{{Volozhin Yeshiva}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bar-Ilan, Meir}}
[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1949 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Valozhyn]]
[[Category:People from Oshmyansky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Belarusian Orthodox rabbis]]
[[Category:American Orthodox rabbis]]
[[Category:Heads of the Jewish Agency for Israel]]
[[Category:Members of the Assembly of Representatives (Mandatory Palestine)]]
[[Category:Orthodox rabbis in Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:Religious Zionist Orthodox rabbis]]
[[Category:Novardok Yeshiva alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American rabbis]]
[[Category:Volozhin Yeshiva alumni]]
[[Category:Immigrants of the Third Aliyah]]