Rabbi Sholom Rivkin

1926 - 2011

Rabbi Sholom Rivkin, who died Saturday, was the last chief rabbi in St. Louis and the United States.

As word spread of his death, he was being mourned worldwide.

He was a renowned expert in certain areas of Jewish law and was consulted by rabbis and rabbinical courts around the world.

The position of chief rabbi is somewhat akin to that of a chief judge. It was a holdover practice brought to the United States during the 1800s by Orthodox Jews from Europe. St. Louis was the last American city with a chief rabbi.

Until he retired in 2005, Rabbi Rivkin headed the Vaad Hoeir in St. Louis, the governing body under which the chief rabbi was the sole authority on questions of Jewish law, education, religious divorce and dietary practices.

"It's been a very heavy responsibility being the decider," he told the Post-Dispatch in 1998.

Rabbi Rivkin died Saturday (Oct. 1, 2011) at McKnight Place Extended Care in University City. He was 85 and had lived with Parkinson's disease for about seven years, said his daughter, Jacqueline Rivkin of New York.

Rabbi Rivkin will be buried at the ancient Mount of Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem after three memorial services: the first was Sunday in St. Louis, the second was Monday in New York and the third will be today in Jerusalem.

Survivors include his son, Rabbi Ben Rivkin of Chesterfield; daughter Jacqueline Rivkin of New York; a sister, Ella Shurin of New York City; two grandchildren and two great grandchildren.