Yitzchak Yaacov Reines (, Isaac Jacob Reines), (October 27, 1839 – August 20, 1915) was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi and the founder of the Mizrachi Religious Zionist Movement, one of the earliest movements of Religious Zionism, as well as a correspondent of Theodor Herzl. Biography Yitzchak Yaacov Reines, a descendant of Meir ben Isaac Katzenellenbogen, was born in Karolin (now a part of Pinsk, Belarus). He studied at Eishistok “Kolel Prushim” and earned at the Volozhin Yeshiva before becoming the rabbi of Saukenai, Lithuania in 1867. He then served as rabbi in Svencionys, where in 1882 he founded a yeshiva with a curriculum that included secular subjects. He also founded a modern yeshiva in Lida which attracted many students from throughout Russia. He named the yeshiva Torah Vedaas. Reines wrote many books on rabbinic literature. Reines developed a rational approach to Talmud study in his Hotem Toknit a new plan for a modernized, logical method of studying the Talmud. He was one of the rabbis and representative Jews who assembled in St. Petersburg in 1882 to consider plans for the improvement of the moral and material condition of the Jews in Russia, and there he proposed the substitution of his method for the one prevalent in the yeshivot. His proposition being rejected, he founded a new yeshivah in which his plans were to be carried out. It provided a ten years’ course, during which the student was to acquire the rabbinical knowledge necessary for ordination as a rabbi, and at the same time secure the secular education required in a government rabbi. Although the plan to supply Russian-speaking rabbis agreed in principle with the aims of the Russian government, there was so much Jewish opposition to his yeshivah that it was closed by the authorities after an existence of four years; all further attempts of Reines to reestablish it failed. He was instrumental in the establishment of the first “kollel” perushim, for the purpose of subsidizing young married men studying for the rabbinate, under Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer. In 1870, while rabbi of Lida, his son, Moses was born. Moses Reines was the author of Jewish historical materials for the history of Jewish culture in Russia and for a history of the yeshivot in Russia. Moses died in Lida on March 7, 1891. Zionist activism He was a member of the Hovevei Zion movement from its inception. Reines joined Rabbi Samuel