ROSENBAUM Origin of surname

Moses Haim Lits Rosenbaum (1864-1943), rabbi, born in Pozsony (Pressburg), Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire (now Bratislava, Slovakia). He was ordained by Simhah Bunim Sofer and served as rabbi of two large communities, first in Szilagysomlyo (Simleul Silvaniei), Transylvania, (now in Romania) from 1888 to 1897, and then from 1898 until his death in Kisvarda (Kleinvardein), Hungary.

On the death of R. Kopel Reich in 1929, he was asked to represent Orthodox Jewry in the upper house of the Hungarian parliament but refused, preferring to devote himself to his large community. Rosenbaum was an excellent preacher in Yiddish, German, and Hungarian. He published Meshiv Devarim (2 parts, 1900-02), response on Orah Hayyim and Yoreh De'ah by his father Gershon, rabbi of Tallya, adding his own notes. He was also the author of Lehem Rav (1921), on the prayer book. The bulk of his writings, however, which fill 15 large volumes, remained in manuscript; among them is a diary, one chapter of which was published by Ben-Menahem in Aresheth, 1 (1958), that is of considerable interest.

Although an extremist in religious matters, Rosenbaum did not ignore the Haskalah literature, and sent a message of congratulation to Leopold Zunz, founder of Wissenschaft des Judentums (Judaic Studies), on his 90th birthday. One of his two sons, Samuel, who succeeded him in Kisvarda, perished in the Holocaust in 1944, and his grandson, Pinhas Rosenbaum, published his responsa Elleh Divrei Shemu'el in 1961.

Lewis Newman Rosenbaum (1881-1956), financing and business organizer, born in Ungvar (also known as Uzhhorod), a city in Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine),  The family immigrated to the United States in 1887 and, like many other Jewish immigrants, settled in the lower east side of New York City. He moved to Nashville, TN, where he hoped to work in his uncle's cigar manufacturing company. Instead he obtained work as a legal assistant for Nashville attorney Moreau Estes. He was 19 years old when admitted to the Tennessee Bar on March 4, 1901. In 1903 he settled in Seattle, WA, and consequently he was admitted to the bar of Washington State in 1905. Rosenbaum’s business financing operations included the organization of chain stores, chains of office buildings, and publishing enterprises, throughout the country. He was an honorary  trustee of the Columbia Basin Irrigation League, which preceded the construction of Grand Coulee Dam.

After settling in New York, Rosenbaum was a self-effacing potent figure in endeavors to foster improved Christian-Jewish relations in America.  As such he was chairman of the ways and means committee of Religion and Welfare Recovery and during World War II he aided the Jewish Welfare Board in its cultural program for U. S. O. centers. From 1911 to 1914 he was the representative of the State of Washington on the American Jewish Committee.

Rosenbaum presented (under the auspices of the Herzl Conservative Congregation) a chapel in memory of his mother, Fani Rosenbaum, to Herzl Memorial Park in Seattle.

Ayn Rand  (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum) (1905-1982), writer and philosopher, born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She studied at the University of Petrograd graduating in 1924. She immigrated to the United States two years later and became a screenwriter in Hollywood. During the late 1930s, she began developing her philosophy of objectivism, a worldview proclaiming support for each individual's talent and effort that according to her opinion finds his or her best expression solely within a pure capitalist framework. Rand argued in favor of her viewpoint in a number of novels, among them "The Fountainhead", published in 1943, and "Atlas Shrugged" released in 1957. She further elaborated her views in a number of non-fiction works as well as in two journals under her editorship: "The Objectivist" (1962-1971) and "The Ayn Rand Letter" (1971-1976).

Morris Rosenbaum (1871-1947), rabbi, born in London, United Kingdom. He studied at Jews' College and University College, London. After serving for a time as minister in Hanley (Staffordshire), he became minister of the Newcastle community, serving until 1905 when he was appointed minister of London's Borough Synagogue. His broad interests included mathematics and he was an expert on the Jewish calendar. Rosenbaum also researched Jewish genealogy and was co-translator into English of Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch.

Solomon Aronovich Rosenbaum (1885-1941?), painter, born in Poltava, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). He studied at the Art School in Odessa, from 1901 to 1908, and then at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia. He returned to Poltava in 1915, working in the workshop of Ivan Myasoedov for a couple of years before engaging in his own career. His works include genre paintings, still life, and landscapes, many of them depicting Poltava and its surroundings. Focusing on Impressionist style landscapes Rosenbaum managed to avoid the restrictions imposed by the Soviet regime on artists. Rosenbaum was murdered by the Nazis in Poltava during the Holocaust. Some of his works are on display at the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kiev and at Poltava art museum.

Meyer Rosenbaum (1910-2014), rabbi, served as Chief Rabbi of Cuba, born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine (then Czernowitz, in the historical region of Bukovina, part of Austria-Hungary), the son of Rabbi Itamar Rosenbaum of the Kretshnif and Nadworna Hassidic dynasties. He immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1933 and studied at Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem being ordained a rabbi in 1936. One year later he moved to New York where he attended the University of New York. In 1948 he travelled to Cuba on a fund-raising mission for Etzel Jewish underground resistance organization in British Mandate Palestine. Rosenbaum remained in Cuba from 1948 to 1958 serving as rabbi of the Adat Israel-Knesset Israel Ashkenazi community in Havana and as the unofficial Chief Rabbi of Cuba. He founded the orthodox Tahkemoni School in Havana that competed with Colegio Israelito, a Jewish school affiliated to the Conservative movement, in addition he was a lecturer at the University of Havana. In 1958 he moved to Venezuela serving as rabbi in Caracas, and later as rabbi in Guatemala and Mexico. Rosenbaum published a number of books in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Spanish, including Der heint in der Torah (1968) and Hatorah Leor Hatekufa (1970).