| Abstract: | Jacob Muskin (1920-1990) was a Cleveland, Ohio, rabbi affiliated with the Orthodox movement of Judaism. Born in Chicago, Muskin attended the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore. After World War II, he was the associate national director of Va-ad Ha-Hatzalah (the rescue committee, in Hebrew), an organization that saved children and scholars from the Holocaust. He began his pulpit career in Cleveland as the rabbi of the Kinsman Jewish Center in 1950, where he established the first synagogue-sponsored nursery school in the city. In 1959 he helped to orchestrate the merger of Kinsman Jewish Center with other small Orthodox congregations to form Warrensville Center Synagogue in Cleveland Heights. He served as rabbi at Warrensville Center Synagogue until his death in 1990. Muskin was active in many local Jewish organizations. He served on the Kashruth Board, the chaplaincy committee, and the Central Fund for Traditional Institutions, all of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland. He was on the board of directors and served on the educational committees of Yeshiva Adath B'nai Israel, the Telshe Yeshiva, and the Bureau of Jewish Education of Cleveland. As a member of the Merkaz Harabonim, the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of Cleveland, he served as chair for six years, often articulating the views of the Orthodox community on issues such as Kashruth, divorce, cemetery practices, holiday observances, and Zionism. The collection consists of correspondence, minutes, newspaper clippings, ledgers, lists, synagogue programs, and legal documents. | |