Joseph Krauskoph

Who was Joseph Krauskoph?

Joseph Krauskopf was a prominent American Rabbi, author, and leader of Reform Judaism.

In July, 1872, at the age of fourteen, Krauskopf emigrated to the United States and went to Fall River, Massachusetts, where he found employment as clerk in a tea-store. Through the influence of friends, in October 1875, Krauskopf secured admittance into the first class of Hebrew Union College located in Cincinnati. While studying there and in the University of Cincinnati, Krauskopf acted as a tutor, contributed articles to journals, and published "The First Union Hebrew Reader" and "Second Union Hebrew Reader" and "Bible Ethics". He graduated from the university and from the Hebrew Union College in 1883. In 1885, the faculty of the college conferred upon him the degree of D.D.For a short time Krauskopf served as Rabbi in Peoria, Illinois, and in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Krauskopf received and accepted a call from the Bnai Jehudah congregation in Kansas City, Missouri. He was appointed by the governor of Missouri as a life-member of the Board of National Charities and Corrections, and in 1885 was elected vice-president of the Pittsburg Conference, of which Dr. I. M. Wise was president. In the same year Krauskopf received a call from the Reform Synagogue, Congregation Keneseth Israel of Philadelphia.