Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld

Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, also spelled Zonnenfeld (1 December 1848 – 26 February 1932), was the rabbi and co-founder of the Edah HaChareidis, a Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem, during the years of the British Mandate of Palestine. Sonnenfeld was born in Verbó in the Austrian Empire. His father, Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zonnenfeld, died when Chaim was five years old.

Sonnenfeld was a student of Samuel Benjamin Sofer (the Ksav Sofer).

Sonnenfeld was the right-hand man of Yehoshua Leib Diskin and assisted the latter in communal activities, such as the founding of schools and the Diskin Orphanage, and fighting against secularism.

Sonnenfeld and Abraham Isaac Kook were vigorous opponents in many areas. However, notwithstanding their disagreements, the two rabbis enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect and friendship.

Works
Sonnenfeld wrote scholarly commentaries on the Torah, Talmud, and Shulchan Aruch. His responsa are collected in the work Salmas Chaim.

Gallery

 * Yoseph Chaïm Sonnenfeld during the years of the British mandate.
 * British High Commissioner's reception at Government House, Jerusalem, with texts of the Proclamation, 1920. L-R: Rabbis Moshe Leib Bernstein, Yosef Chaïm Sonnenfeld, Yerucham Diskin, and Baruch Reuven Jungreis.
 * Yoseph Chaïm Sonnenfeld receives Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, President of Czechoslovakia, during the latter's visit to Jerusalem, 1927.
 * Yosef Chaïm Sonnenfeld (left) with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, 1930s.