Brooklyn-born rabbi, attorney, and prolific writer leaves behind a legacy of Jewish activism and an unapologetic defense of Israel

By: Fern Sidman

Rabbi Dov Fischer, Esq., a towering figure in Orthodox Jewish life, an attorney, prolific writer, and lifelong activist for Jewish causes, passed away on Monday after a long illness.

The Brooklyn-born dynamo left an indelible mark on Jewish communal life in America and beyond, combining rabbinic leadership with a distinguished legal career and a tireless pen.

Rabbi Fischer grew up in Flatbush, in the vibrant post-war Jewish community that shaped a generation of leaders dedicated to Zionism and Jewish continuity. As a student at Columbia University in New York City, Fischer was elected by the undergraduate class to be their representative in the University Senate. At the same time, he was active in Jewish student life at Columbia, played a leading role in the growing protest movement for Soviet Jewry and began to emerge as a talented lecturer and educator.

The precocious Fischer was chosen, at the age of just 19, to serve as national executive director of the Jewish Defense League, channeling his formidable energy into advocating for Jewish rights and physically protecting Jewish communities. At that juncture, there were some in the Jewish community who were uncomfortable about young Jews training in martial arts and self-defense tactics. Things look somewhat different today, in the face of the current nationwide wave of antisemitism in the United States.

After graduating from Columbia, Fischer enrolled in Yeshiva University, where he simultaneously earned an advanced graduate degree in Jewish history and rabbinical ordination from YU’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Fischer served as a summer rabbi for both Camp Betar, in upstate New York, and JDL’s Camp JeDeL, where young men and women combined the study of Zionism with physical preparedness.

Rabbi Fischer was much beloved by the congregants at his first pulpit, in Jersey City, both for his scholarship and his activism. Among other notable projects, he persuaded the mayor of Jersey City to “twin” the city with the Israeli community of Tekoa, in Judea, emphasizing that Jersey City is located on the “west bank” of the Hudson River.

Fischer and his family left Jersey City to join the group of American Jewish pioneers who founded the Israeli frontier community of Karnei Shomron. Compelled by financial circumstances to return to the United States, he entered UCLA School of Law, where he excelled, serving as Chief Articles Editor of the UCLA Law Review. He clerked for Judge Danny J. Boggs of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and later practiced complex civil litigation at some of the nation’s top firms, including Jones Day, Akin Gump, and Baker & Hostetler.

Rabbi Fischer was widely respected as both a litigator and teacher, later serving as an adjunct professor of law at two Southern California law schools. His legal background gave his writing and rabbinic work a sharp, incisive edge, marked by clarity, analytical rigor, and moral conviction.

Despite his professional success in law, Rabbi Fischer’s true calling remained in the rabbinate. In 2005, he became rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation in Irvine, California. Three years later, he established the Young Israel of Orange County, the first new Orthodox synagogue in that county in more than two decades. He was cherished and admired as a communal rabbi, bringing pastoral sensitivity, intellectual depth, and an unyielding sense of mission to his congregation.

Rabbi Fischer also served in leadership positions at the Rabbinical Council of America and other Jewish and Zionist organizations and was a founder of the Coalition for Jewish Values, of which he was national vice president. In all these capacities, his life reflected a deep and uncompromising commitment to Orthodox Jewish life, Zionism, and the defense of Israel.

Perhaps no area of Rabbi Fischer’s work reached as many as his writing. Over a remarkable 50-year span, he authored thousands of essays that were published in numerous Jewish and general publications around the world. In recent years, he was a prominent contributor to The American Spectator, a leading conservative periodical. Fischer’s bold style, penetrating insight, and unapologetic support for Israel won him a wide readership.

Rabbi Fischer’s essays addressed issues ranging from Jewish law and Orthodox life to American politics, Middle East affairs, and media ethics. A gifted polemicist, he had a unique ability to blend legal reasoning, rabbinic tradition, and contemporary analysis.

Fischer also authored two critically-acclaimed books. “Jews for Nothing: On Cults, Intermarriage and Assimilation” was a searing critique of the forces threatening Jewish continuity. “General Sharon’s War Against Time Magazine: His Trial and Vindication” was a detailed account of Ariel Sharon’s libel case against Time magazine.

Rabbi Fischer’s life embodied what he called the central principle of activism: the recognition of a problem in the world and the commitment to addressing it. Whether marching for Soviet Jewry, imparting moral lessons from the pulpit, lovingly guiding Jewish newcomers through the conversion process, or wielding his pen as a sword, Dov Fischer was a warrior for the Jewish people.

Colleagues and congregants alike remember him as uncompromisingly principled, brilliant, and witty. Even when tackling controversial subjects in his sermons and writings, Fischer articulated a deep passion for Jewish survival that none could gainsay. His ability to move seamlessly between the worlds of law, the rabbinate, and public commentary gave him a unique and powerful voice.

Tributes already are pouring in from around the world, testimony to the gratitude that is so widely felt for Rabbi Fischer’s lifetime of service to the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

The passing of Rabbi Dov Fischer is a profound loss for his wife, Denise; his four children; the countless friends and colleagues who were privileged to know him; and the entire Jewish nation. His memory will be for a blessing because he left behind a vast body of writings and YouTube videos of Torah lessons, from which future generations will be able to learn.