Rabbi Akiva Hakohen Katz, ABD Salonika >> Rabbi Yitzhak HaCohen Katz [of Galata] >> Rabbi Chaim HaCohen Katz ( – 1509) == N.N. >> Rabbi Mordechai Gershon Katz (ca. 1486 – 1577) == Falka Klauber >> Yosef HaCohen Katz, She’erit Yosef of Cracow (ca. 1510 – 1591) == Shprinza Altschuler ( ? – ca. 1577) >> Rivka Katz == Mordecai Yechiel Schrentzel (ca. 1560 – 1616) >> Gittel Schrentzel (ca. 1600 – 1652) == Rabbi Ephraim Fischel (ca 1570 – 1653) >> Yehudit (Jute) Leib Saba == Rabbi Arye-Leib Fischles / Fishls Kalusziner / Kloisner, (ca. 1620 – 1671) >> Pearl Aryeh Leib Kloisner (ca. 1666 – 1722) == Ezekiel Joshua (Yechezkia / Yehoshua) Feivel Teomim (ca. 1637 – ca. 1726) >> Chaim Jonah Frankel-Teomim == Sarah Oppenheim >> Magdelene Genendel Frankel-Teomim (1713 – 1778) == Simon Isaac Bondi (1711 – 1773) >> Jonas Bondi (1732 – 1765) == Bella / Belle Schifra >> Clara / Caroline Bondi (1760-1829) == Koppel Loeb of Bamberg >> Moises Loeb / Moritz Reis >> Jonas Reis == Marian Samuel >> REIS FAMILY
Rabbi Yitzchak Katz, was Chief of the Rabbinical Court of Galata. For several years he lived in Salonica with his father, Rabbi Akiva Hakohen Katzand, and after this moved to Galata, in Constantinople, and there served as Chief of the Rabbinical Court of the community of the exiles of Spain and Portugal until his death. His son was:
YOSEF / JOSPEH HACOHEN KATZ, SHE’ERIT YOSEF (ca. 1510 in Cracow – 1591) was a kohen by birth, a rabbi and Talmudist, who began his studies of the Talmud at an early age, and became the dean (rosh yeshivah) at a yeshiva founded for him by his father-in-law Moshe (Eberles) Altschuler of Prague and Cracow (ca. 1520 – 1557)). He married Schprinze / Shprinza Shprinze (Eberles) Altschuler and they were the direct ancestors of Moritz Reis.
Schprinze’s ancestor was known as Abraham Eberle Altschul. So far as is known, he was the earliest bearer of the name of Altschul. He lived in Prague toward the close of the fifteenth century.
Yosef / Joseph HaCohen Katz was the author of She’erit Yosef (Cracow, 1590), containing responsa and discussions on various rabbinical subjects, as well as a commentary on the Mordechai tractates Nezikin, Berakot, and Mo’ed. In the preface, the author states that he published this work at the request of his sons, Tanhuma and Aaron Moses, who were members of the Jewish community of Cracow. He also corrected the manuscript from which was printed the Aggudah of Alexandri HaKohain of Frankfurt. His views on religious questions were widely sought, while Solomon Luria was one of his correspondents.
Among his publications were:
- Sheʼelot u-teshuvot : ṿe-niḳra be-shem Sheʼerit Yosef 2 editions published in 1767 in Hebrew
- Sheʼelot u-teshuvot, beʼurim ʻal ha-Mordekhai mi-seder Neziḳin u-masekhet Berakhot ṿe-ʻal halakhot ḳeṭanot ṿe-Seder Moʻed ṿe-ʻal Ṭur Ḥoshen mishpaṭ : ṿe-niḳra ba-shem Sheʼerit Yosef 1 edition published in 2006 in Hebrew.
- Ulai yeḥenan D. et sheʼerit Yosef : sheʼelot u-teshuvot 1 edition published in 2004 in Hebrew
- Sheʼelot u-teshuvot u-veʼurim ʻal ha-Mordekhai mi-Seder Neziḳin u-Masekhet Berakhot, ṿe-ʻal halakhot ḳeṭanot ṿe-Seder Moʻed ̣ve-ʻal Ṭur Ḥoshen mishpaṭ : ṿe-niḳra be-shem Sheʼerit Yosef 1 edition published in 2007 in Hebrew
- Med engelskt forord s. iii-iv Sheʼelot u-teshuvot : u-veʼuri. ʻal ha-Mordekhai mi-seder Neziḳin u-masekhet Berakhot ṿe-ʻal halakhot ḳeṭanot ṿe-seder Moʻed ṿe-ʻal Ṭur Ḥoshen ha-mishpaṭ 2 editions published in 1590 in Hebrew
- Tallinn vremen švedskogo gospodstva i Evropa : (1561-1710) 1 edition published in 2002 in Russian
Joseph / Yosef was appointed Dayan in the Kraków Beit Din in 1541, as a young man. With time, he was promoted to the highest panel of the Beit Din, sitting alongside R. Moshe Segal Landau and R. Moshe Isserles – the Rema. Isserles, the Rema, later became Yosef’s brother-in-law when he married Yosef’s sister Shprintzel. That marriage took place in 1542, after the passing of Isserles’ first wife, Golda, daughter of R. Shachna of Lublin.
Apart from his position as Dayan, R. Joseph / Yosef Katz served as the ‘dean’ of the yeshiva in Kraków, and after the passing of the Rema, he was recognized as the foremost Torah disseminator and community leader in Kraków.
Yosef was reputed throughout the Jewish world as an outstanding Torah scholar, posek and halachic authority, and even his brother-in-law the Rema took his rulings into consideration and accepted his teachings. Amongst the Torah leaders who sent R. Yosef Katz their rulings and asked for his opinion was the Maharshal, who despite being known as a resolute individual who would not flatter anyone, writes of him (Katz) with admiration and self-effacement, describing his own teachings as the discussions of a student before his teacher.
One of R. Yosef Katz’s Torah enterprises was the publication of Sefer HaAgudah by R. Alexander Suslin HaKohen of Frankfurt, in Kraków 1571.
She’erit Yosef spread rapidly after its publication amongst the Torah scholars of the generation, who discuss the novellae and rulings found in the book and quote them in their works. These include his contemporaries (disciples of the Rema and the Maharsha) R. Binyamin Aharon Slonik in his book Mas’at Binyamin and R. Yehoshua Falk, the Sema, in his book Derisha UPerisha. R. Yoel Sirkis, the Bach, who succeeded Yosef as rabbi of Kraków, mentions him in his work; followed by R. Shabtai Katz, the Shach, who discusses his teachings several times in his work on the Shulchan Aruch.
His contemporary, R. David Ganz of Prague (disciple of the Rema), describes R. Yosef Katz in his book Tzemach David as bearing four crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, the crown of royalty and greatness, and the crown of a good name. His epitaph reads: “…R. Yosef son of R. Mordechai Gershon Katz, rabbi and yeshiva dean here in Kraków for over fifty years…”.
(For a detailed biography of R. Yosef Katz, see introduction by R. Moshe David Chechik at the beginning of She’erit Yosef, Zichron Aharon edition, Jerusalem 2017).
Rabbi Yitzhak HaCohen Katz [of Galata] had a son HaGaon Rabbi Akiva HaCohen Katz, of Ofen who achieved a level of reputation that survives today along with his son Rabbi Gershom HaCohen Katz, [of Prague]. However, not being direct ancestors of the REIS family we do not follow their life events here.
Rabbi Yitzhak haKohen Katz’s daughter, Chava Eva Katz, married Rabbi Abraham Samuel Bacharach. Abraham Samuel and Chava Eva had a son – Rabbi Yair Chayim Bachrach, ״Chavat Yair”. The REIS family is descended from both the Bacharach and the Katz family.
