Rabbi Binyamin Fleischer
בּנימין בּינישׁ בּן יעקב שׁלמה הכּהן
1885-1952
Rabbi Binyamin Beinush HaKohen Fleischer, Chief Rabbi of Paterson and Bayonne, New Jersey, was born to his father Rabbi Yaakov Shlomo on 21 Sivan 5645 [June 4, 1885] in the forest of Zezmer in the Vilna district.
He studied under the Gaon Rabbi Yosef Charif, Posek in Baltrimantz, and afterwards under the Gaon Rabbi M. Danishevsky in Slobodka, and also studied under the Gaon Rabbi Shabtai Rosenberg; he became famous already in his childhood as the “Illui of Zezmer” because he had a frightening and wondrous memory, like a plastered cistern that does not lose a drop.
He received semicha from Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spector from Kovno.
When he reached marriageable age, he married the daughter of Rabbi Raphael Safsel, a ritual slaughterer and the father of the Gaon Rabbi Yaakov Ber, known as the “Illui of Viska”.
In the year 1903 he came to America; in the year 5674 1914 he was elected as the Head of the Rabbinical Court of Beth Hamedrash Hagadol of Brownsville; meanwhile, he served in the rabbinate at Chevra Beth Abraham in Bayonne, New Jersey; and upon the passing of the great Gaon Rabbi Shalom Elchanan Jaffe, who was the rabbi of Beth Hamedrash Hagadol in Manhattan, Rabbi Fleischer filled his place until his passing, at which time his place was taken by Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, of blessed memory; he was an active member of the Assembly of Orthodox Rabbis in America.
Controversy
Copied from https://www.jta.org/archive/rabbi-fleischer-denies-he-gave-issur-sanction – 1934
Rabbi Fleischer Denies He Gave Issur Sanction
Openly Taxes Kashruth Association With Treachery
Rabbi Benjamin Fleischer, who was banned by a rabbinical tribunal for violating the Kashruth Association poultry issur, yesterday denied Yiddish newspaper reports that he had consented to back the issur, or rabbinical ban.
Rabbi Fleischer, who presided at ceremonies marking pronouncement of the issur at his synagogue, the Beth Hamedresh Hagodol, last week, had been prohibited by a group of forty East Side rabbis from exercising his rabbinical prerogatives, including supervision of poultry markets after he had entered agreement to supervise nine East Side poultry markets.
Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, whose decision, establishing rabbinical supervision of markets and tagging of chickens the Kashruth Association is trying to enforce, called Rabbi Fleischer to his chambers Tuesday and after a closed conference a report was given out that Rabbi Fleischer had decided to abide by the issur.
DENIAL BY RABBI
This report was denied by Rabbi Fleischer yesterday. He said he had merely announced agreement with the principle behind the issur as a basis for negotiation with the Kashruth Association.
He accused the Association of “treachery and beguilements.”
“I was promised that no person, particularly rabbis, would be present when I conferred with Judge Rosalsky,” he declared. “Instead I found a multitude of rabbis who tried to beguile me into supporting the issur before I could give the matter due reflection.”
“I do not consider myself bound and openly disclaim and negotation with Kashrus Association.” he asserted.
He said he would makle no agreement forcing him to “betray the market men whose markets I am supervising and the shochtim who trust me.”
He asserted that “extreme pressure” was brought to bear the rabbinate to force him to preside at the pronouncement of the issur in his synagogue last week. He said he wept on the platform while there ceremonies were in progress beacuase he thought of all the people who, he said, would suffer from the issur.
Eleven Bronx wholesale poultry markets yesterday were under supervision of the three insurgent rabbis who bolted the Kashruth Association and defied its ban on unlabeled poultry to sign a contract for supervision including no tagging provision, with the Live Poultry Institute of New York, organization of Bronx wholesalers.
Consummation of the agreement was first announced late Tuesday night to almost a 1,000 Bronx kosher butchers and market owners attending a mass meeting at the Hunts Point Palace. The contract was wildly acclaimed by the butchers, who resolved to boycott poultry bearing the leg-bands of Kashruth Association supervision.,
When Rabbi Israel Mofshovitz, one of the four who signed the agreement, arose to speak, an unidentified man in the audience shouted, “You’re selling your soul.” He was seized by enraged butchers, pummeled and forcibly ejected from the hall. He refused to give his name.
The rabbis who signed the agreement, besides Rabbi Mofshovitz, are Rabbis Judah Hahn and Raphael M. Barishansky, at whose home negotiations heading to the agreement were carried on.
The butchers adopted a resolution to deal only with the market owners under the supervision of the rabbis.
Charles Cohen, president of the Federation of Kosher Butchers, declared, ” The rabbis should come to us to learn about Kashruth.” He asserted that rabbis are trying to “make a business of Torah” and denounced the system of attaching leg-bands to fowl as a “racket.”
Rabbi Barishansky announced the agreement signed provides poultry markets must remain closed on Saturdays and non-kosher chickens discovered by supervisors must be destroyed.
Rav Fleisher’s Seforim
Shavi Binyamin שו”ת שבי בנימין
Revi’i BaKodesh Sheket Binyamin שו”ת רביעי בקדש שקט בנימין
HaAderet VeHaMamlacha האדרת והממלכה
Rabbinic Positions Held
Paterson, New Jersey
Bayonne, New Jersey
Brooklyn, New York
Additional Files
Correspondence of Rabbi Benjamin Fleischer and general synagogue matters, 1930s-1950s
EARLY AMERICAN RABBONIM 
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