Joseph Shapotshnick ^People

Shapotshnicks father, Yehuda Leib Shapotshnick, was a Hasidic lea- der in Chisināu, known as the Belsitzer Rebbe. After his death in 1896, the young Shapotshnick and his mother moved to Odessa, where he studied at the local univer-sity and under Dayan Abraham Joel Abelson. Shapotshnick moved to the East End of London in 1913, from then until his death, he was embroiled in numerous controver-sies, both within and beyond the Anglo-Jewish community.A prolific author of numerous self-published books, pamphlets, newspapersand journals, Shapotshnick published in 1908 an 80-page treatise on the kabbalistic meanings of the name of God, entitled Kedushas H-Shem. His most famous pub- lication, Shass ha-gadol she-bi-gedolim, was published in 1919. It consisted of one volume of the Talmud - tractate Berakhot - and was the largest rabbinic book ever published. Shapotshnick was a persistent critic of the Anglo-Jewish establishment's mistreatment of the poor immigrants who lived mainly in the East End. He criticised the lack of interest in the welfare and education of immigrant Jews, and at various times set up his own educational establishments, and more controversially, his ownkosher supervision authority.In the spring of1937, it was discovered that 8 of the 1 butcher shops under his supervision were selling 'kosher' meat bought from non-Jewish wholesalers.