Years: 1840–1902
Primary city: New York City
Rabbi Jacob Joseph was the first and only chief rabbi of New York City, appointed in 1888 to head the Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. A talmid of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter and the Volozhin yeshiva, he was previously a rav and maggid in several Lithuanian communities, including Vilna. His major published works were the homiletic collection Le-Beis Yaakov and sermons and writings later associated with Sefer Toledos Yaakov Yosef be-New York.