1. Joseph Krauskopf was a prominent American Jewish rabbi, author, leader of Reform Judaism, founder of the National Farm School, and long-time rabbi at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, the oldest reform synagogue in Philadelphia which under Krauskopf, became the largest reform congregation in the nation.
Joseph Krauskopf was born in Ostrowo, Prussia, on January 21,1858.
In July 1872, at the age of fourteen, Krauskopf emigrated to the United States, expecting to join his older brother, Manaseh, in New Jersey.
Joseph Krauskopf's brother was murdered just as Krauskopf arrived in the United States and instead he went to Fall River, Massachusetts, where he had cousins.
Also writing a letter of recommendation for Joseph Krauskopf was William Reed, the editor of the Fall River Daily Evening News.
Joseph Krauskopf arrived in Cincinnati in 1875 to be part of the first class at Hebrew Union College.
Joseph Krauskopf spent the next eight years at Hebrew Union College.
In Kansas City, Joseph Krauskopf was enormously popular within his synagogue and the larger urban community.
Joseph Krauskopf gave widely attended public lectures, some of which were later published as books.
In July 1887 Joseph Krauskopf accepted an offer from Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel of Philadelphia.
Joseph Krauskopf was formally installed at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel on October 23,1887.
Once in Philadelphia, Joseph Krauskopf quickly established himself as a leading figure in both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities.
Joseph Krauskopf's congregation was almost entirely made up of Jews from Germany and other parts of central Europe.
For example, while continuing to hold religious services on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, Joseph Krauskopf established a Sunday service which followed the traditions of American Protestantism.
Joseph Krauskopf spoke on theology, religion, ethics, social science, natural science and current events.
Joseph Krauskopf published these sermons and lectures as pamphlets which sold briskly.
Under Joseph Krauskopf, KI flourished and became the largest reform Jewish congregation in the United States.
Joseph Krauskopf worked closely with Catholic and Protestant leaders in Philadelphia, and was a force for ethnic and religious pluralism.
Joseph Krauskopf's congregation was almost entirely made up of German Jews.
In 1894 Joseph Krauskopf visited Russia to investigate the condition of Jews in that notoriously anti-Semitic nation.
Joseph Krauskopf was uncomfortable with this publicity, but later admitted it probably led to Russia finally granting him a visa.
Joseph Krauskopf met with American diplomats, Russian political leaders and various intellectuals including Leo Tolstoy, best known as the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
At Tolstoy's suggestion, Joseph Krauskopf visited Jewish agricultural colonies in the Russian Empire and the Jewish Agricultural School at Odessa.
Joseph Krauskopf served as the first president of the institution, which is Delaware Valley University.
Joseph Krauskopf spent a great deal of time raising money for the school, and in 1905 led a capital campaign that raised $50,000, including a $12,500 donation from Andrew Carnegie.
When Joseph Krauskopf came to KI, the congregation had 250 member families.
Under Joseph Krauskopf KI abolished the traditional Bar Mittzvah for thirteen-year-old boys and replaced it with a confirmation for boys and girls at age sixteen or seventeen.
Almost immediately after he arrived in Cuba, Joseph Krauskopf contacted the Jewish philanthropist Nathan Strauss, persuading him to donate an ice factory to support the needs of American troops in Cuba.
In March 1903, Joseph Krauskopf was elected director-general of the Isaac Meyer Wise Memorial Fund, and in July of the same year he became president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the main professional organization of reform rabbis.
Joseph Krauskopf served on the Liberty Loan Committee for Philadelphia and was worked on issues involving food conservation.
The Jews and Moors in Spain came from a series of eighteen public lectures Joseph Krauskopf gave while he was the Rabbi at Congregation B'Nai Jehudah in Kansas City, Missouri.
Joseph Krauskopf accepted the scientific legitimacy of evolution and Darwinian theory.
In 1883 Joseph Krauskopf married Rose Berkowitz, the sister of his close friend and intellectual collaborator, Henry Berkowitz.
Joseph Krauskopf had taught her when she took a confirmation class in Benai Jehuda.
Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf's son, Manfred, served as the president of the board of trustees of the National Farm School, which his father had founded.