DCB/DBC Mobile beta
+

As part of the funding agreement between the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Museum of History, we invite readers to take part in a short survey.

I’ll take the survey now.

Remind me later.

Don’t show me this message again.

I have already taken the questionnaire

DCB/DBC News

New Biographies

Minor Corrections

Biography of the Day

ROBINSON, ELIZA ARDEN – Volume XIII (1901-1910)

d. in Victoria 19 March 1906

Confederation

Responsible Government

Sir John A. Macdonald

From the Red River Settlement to Manitoba (1812–70)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Sports

The Fenians

Women in the DCB/DBC

The Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864

Introductory Essays of the DCB/DBC

The Acadians

For Educators

The War of 1812 

Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers

The First World War

CRESTOHL, HYMAN MEYER, rabbi; b. 15 Sept. 1864 in Poland; m. Rose Weitzman, and they had three sons; d. 5 May 1928 in Montreal.

Hyman Meyer Crestohl received an extensive education in the literary sources of Orthodox Judaism in his native Poland and obtained his rabbinical ordination from eminent authorities there. He also was exposed in his youth to an informal education in contemporary European literature and thought, in a manner which was not uncommon among rabbinical students at the time. After his ordination he served as rabbi in Siedlce. He was a Zionist by conviction and became an early member of Mizrachi, the religious faction of the Zionist movement. An activist and a propagandist for Zionism, he was in contact with many of the movement’s political leaders in Europe, such as Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow, and rabbis Samuel Mohilewer and Isaac Jacob Reines.

In 1904 Crestohl went to New York as an emissary of Mizrachi and he stayed there until 1911. During this period he probably visited Canada in connection with his promotion of the Mizrachi movement. It is likely that the contacts he made led to his immigration to Canada in 1911 and to his nomination as rabbi of Ohev Sholom synagogue in Quebec City that year. He found in Quebec City a small Jewish community of approximately 400 persons. Most had come from eastern Europe in the 1890s and were engaged in commerce. The congregation was the city’s second and it had been founded only a year before his arrival. Crestohl’s activities were hardly limited to his congregation. During his eight years as rabbi, he maintained ties with the Zionist movement in Canada, founding and acting as first president of the Dorshei Zion Society of Quebec City and serving on the council of the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada [see Clarence Isaac de Sola*]. During World War I he was also active in ministering to the religious needs of Jewish soldiers training at Valcartier.

In 1919 Crestohl moved to Montreal, where he served from 1920 to 1928 as rabbi of the Hadrath Kodesh congregation, founded by immigrants from Russian Poland. His own Polish origins had no doubt helped him obtain the post. Almost all synagogues founded by eastern European immigrants were unable to furnish rabbis with an adequate income, so Crestohl also functioned as a shohet (ritual slaughterer) in Montreal’s kosher meat industry. In 1920 he became first president of the Mizrachi Organization of Canada.

Crestohl was well known as a scholar of rabbinic literature and he wrote many works on this subject. The fact that his works remained in manuscript, however, most likely because he was unable or unwilling to raise money for their publication, served to limit his influence to the Jewish community in Montreal. Only one of his treatises was published, posthumously by his children.

Ira Robinson

Hyman Meyer Crestohl is the author of Sefer heker davar [Investigation of the subject] (Montreal, 1960).

Canadian Jewish Congress National Arch. (Montreal), H. M. Crestohl file. LAC, MG 30 D216. “Ha-rov Hayyim Meyer Crestohl shtarbt plutzling” [Rabbi Hayyim Meyer Crestohl dies suddenly], Keneder Odler [Eagle] (New York), 6 May 1928. “Revered scholar passes,” Canadian Jewish Chronicle (Montreal), 11 May 1928. Archival sources for the study of Canadian Jewry, comp. L. F. Tapper (2nd ed., Ottawa, 1978).

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

Ira Robinson, “CRESTOHL, HYMAN MEYER,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 19, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/crestohl_hyman_meyer_15E.html.

The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:


Permalink:   http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/crestohl_hyman_meyer_15E.html
Author of Article:   Ira Robinson
Title of Article:   CRESTOHL, HYMAN MEYER
Publication Name:   Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15
Publisher:   University of Toronto/Université Laval
Year of publication:   2005
Year of revision:   2005
Access Date:   March 19, 2024