34 Facts About Baruch Korff

Baruch Korff was a longtime Jewish community activist who was associated with the Irgun and Lehi groups.

Baruch Korff was born on July 4,1914, in Novohrad-Volynskyi present-day Ukraine.

Baruch Korff was the second child of Grand Rabbi Jacob Israel Korff and Gittel Goldman Korff, in a family that was part of an unbroken line of rabbis that went back 73 generations.

In 1919, anti-Jewish pogroms swept through Eastern Europe Baruch Korff family found themselves caught in the middle of one such pogrom.

Baruch Korff later followed him there, remaining in Poland for seven years while studying in its yeshivas.

Baruch Korff studied in the Yeshiva Ohr Torah, Yeshiva Torath Chaim, and the Yeshiva Rabbi Isaac Elchanan.

Baruch Korff was the headmaster of the Yeshivah Torath Emeth in Brooklyn, New York from 1936 to 1937.

Baruch Korff later became the rabbi for the Congregation Hayim Solomon from 1938 to 1940.

Baruch Korff became an adviser to the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the US and Canada.

Baruch Korff was an advisor to the US War Refugee Board.

Baruch Korff was the director of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, and later became an active member of the Political Action Committee for Palestine.

Baruch Korff was active in the anti-Nazi movement prior to and during World War II.

Baruch Korff was the director of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People during World War II.

In 1947, in the aftermath of the Exodus incident, and the dismay of many in the nationalist camp that the British government was prohibiting large-scale Jewish migration to Mandatory Palestine, Baruch Korff led a Lehi plot to firebomb the Foreign Office in London in protest.

Baruch Korff traveled to Paris and offered money to a decorated member of the United States Army Air Forces, Reginald Gilbert, to fly the plane that would first drop leaflets, then drop the bombs.

Gilbert feigned acceptance of Baruch Korff's offer, but immediately turned informant, notifying the American Embassy in London, who in turn alerted the Paris police and Scotland Yard to the Stern Gang's planned attack on London.

The authorities convinced Gilbert to go along with the plan, and after a week Baruch Korff was arrested and indicted for masterminding the plot.

Baruch Korff was part of Menachem Begin's underground movement in the 1948 Palestine war.

In 1950, Baruch Korff became the rabbi of a Temple Israel located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Baruch Korff served in that capacity for three years until he worked as a rabbi in Taunton, Massachusetts, where he stayed from 1954 to 1971.

In 1983, Baruch Korff moved to Providence, Rhode Island upon taking a job position as a consultant at Brown University.

Baruch Korff died on July 26,1995, due to pancreatic cancer.

Baruch Korff first met Richard Nixon during his 1967 presidential campaign.

Baruch Korff became an active supporter of Nixon, despite Nixon's known anti-Semitism.

Baruch Korff defended Nixon during Nixon's growing unpopularity over Watergate.

Baruch Korff even held a three-day event of fasting and prayer on Nixon's behalf, and was active in raising money to help with Nixon's growing legal expenses.

Baruch Korff met with Nixon on August 6,1974, in order to convince him not to resign from office.

Nixon later stated that Baruch Korff "spoke with the fire of an Old Testament prophet" when he tried to convince Nixon to fight to stay in office.

Baruch Korff established a trust fund to help pay off Nixon's legal fees, which totaled over $155,000.

Baruch Korff retired from raising funds for Nixon in May 1975.

Baruch Korff later admitted that what Nixon did in the Watergate Scandal was wrong, but continued to stand by him.

Baruch Korff met with Nixon on May 13,1974, after which he wrote the book The Personal Nixon: Staying on the Summit.

Baruch Korff was later married to Rebecca Marshall in the mid-1960s.

Baruch Korff was the uncle of Grand Rabbi Yitzhak Aharon Baruch Korff.